No Hot Air Balloon Near Gore's Place - The American Spectator

Americans for Prosperity has been conducting a state-by-state “Hot Air Tour” to draw attention to the dramatic economic harm that would be caused by global warming alarmists’ “solutions.” Today they were scheduled to launch their attention-getting hot-air balloon over Al Gore’s home near Nashville, after getting their permits all lined up, but I just got this message from AFP director of policy Phil Kerpen:

The Nashville Parks Department is denying us permission to launch the balloon, citing the fact that our permit says balloon rides but not specifically the word “launch.” This despite the fact that we have explained to them on the phone multiple times our precise flight plan and before today there was no indication that there was a problem or any defect in our permit. Clearly, Gore is calling in favors to stop the embarrassing visual and negative coverage surrounding our event and ratcheting up the beating he is taking over his home energy use.

Yes, clearly this would represent too much embarrassment in one week for the former veep.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: From Phil Kerpen, and AFP’s blog,

UPDATE 3:00 pm Eastern time: Roy Wilson at the Nashville Parks Department must not have liked our earlier post, since he just completely revoked our permit — even though his department’s own rules state that he can’t do that unless we break a law or one of the department’s rules, which we haven’t done and have no intention of doing. Then he hung up on our legal counsel. In the meantime, good news to report — we’ve secured a private location for this afternoon’s event. We’ll be in a field at the corner of Sneed and Vaughn Roads — just about a mile and a half from the original event location.

Sounds like lawsuit potential. Meanwhile, Nashville Parks Dept. Contact info:

https://www.nashville.gov/parks/administration.htm

Centennial Park Office
Nashville, TN 37201
Phone: (615) 862-8400
Fax: (615) 862-8414

UPDATE 4:00 P.M.:

Per a phone conversation I had with AFP’s Phil Kerpen, he explained that AFP acknowledged a defect in the permit application to Nashville Parks Dept. So AFP agreed to limit its activity in the park to what it outlined in its application, not fully launch a hot-air balloon, and keep it to tethered rides, and let the event go on. That was not good enough for the Parks Dept., who refused to permit AFP at all to hold an event, and demanded that they leave. Kerpen said the Parks Dept. knew all along what AFP was going to do, to the point that they were asking for insurance information for the balloon rides yesterday afternoon.

Why? Curt Garrigan of the Nashville Parks Dept. told me, “they did not submit an application for the event that was accurate. For that reason we did not issue a permit for the event.” So I asked him, why not still issue the permit if they were willing to comply with the guidelines they laid out in their application. Garrigan’s answer: “They sent out a media release to the public that said they were launching from that site.”

So, apparently the Parks Dept. refused to allow AFP to hold any event at all based upon what they perceived to be public deception. Great public servants at work here: upending a well-publicized event in which they knew all the details, but dismissed on a technicality.

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