Few have fared better in spinning wacky ideas into gold than former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, as the latest TIME magazine documents in an article titled “From Chads To Riches.” Here’s what TIME has to say about one of the latest business deals benefiting the Goracle.

That check landed close behind Gore’s estimated $100 million profit on the sale of Current TV to al-Jazeera, a deal in the waning hours of 2012 that sent Gore bashers into orbit. His critics were correct when they charged that Gore was more adept at cajoling cable operators to include Current TV in their lineups than he was at creating watchable programs during almost a decade as one of the channel’s co-owners. Clearly, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera news network paid top dollar for access to those cable systems, which it had failed to obtain on its own. But Gore is hardly the first person to get rich by wheedling a spot on basic cable.

But Gore might be the first person to bank $100 million in oil money after spending more than a decade piling up cash from books, movies, and companies dedicated to the concept of demonizing oil and other fossil fuels.