The following is an editorial that originally appeared in the February 2, 2010 edition of JSOnline.com:
Our nation is facing one of the biggest threats known to date. Unlike the past, however, this threat comes not from other nations but our dependence on foreign fuels. Moving to clean, homegrown energy and reducing our carbon emissions are huge steps toward ensuring the safety of our country and military troops and securing our energy future.
The United States holds only 2% of the world’s oil reserves but consumes 25% of the world’s total petroleum production, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. This makes us dependent on other countries, including unfriendly regimes that are a threat to national security and put our armed forces at greater risk. This dangerous dependence on oil also puts the U.S. at a strategic and economic disadvantage.
Our leaders’ decisions about foreign affairs, defense and economics are all intertwined with our addiction to oil. Each day, $1 billion flows out of our economy to purchase oil from other countries, which then exposes our businesses and families to volatile fuel prices. A smarter practice is investing that money here, in renewable, homegrown energy.
My interest in securing our independent energy future started while I was deployed to Iraq in the summer of 2003 with the 123rd Main Support Battalion 1st Armored Division as a truck driver. When I was doing convoys in Baghdad and the surrounding area every day, I saw firsthand how crippled a country can become when it does not have oil. The people in Iraq are literally living on a sea of oil, but when the production and distribution was disrupted because of war, the people were helpless.
People lined up all day to get fuel for cars. They couldn’t run generators without fuel, leaving Baghdad powerless. Hauling fuel and water, resources our military units needed to survive, to outposts every day, I realized how detrimental our fossil fuel dependence is – we were in danger every time we left the gates of Baghdad International Airport. If our military was more energy efficient, that would mean fewer trips outside the airport and less risk to American lives.
Even if the U.S. had unlimited oil at its disposal, the risks of climate change still pose a significant threat to national security, which is becoming the consensus among military and intelligence leaders. The CIA has opened a Center on Climate Change and National Security, focused on the national security impact of phenomena such as desertification, rising sea levels, population shifts and heightened competition for natural resources, all of which create ideal conditions for recruiting terrorists.
In a 2007 Center for Naval Analysis Study, 11 retired generals (some initially skeptical of climate change) concluded that climate change is a “threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.” Retired Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) said, “The U.S. must take a leadership role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Other nations are moving ahead, and the U.S. must join and step to the forefront.”
There is a positive side to this story. The steps we must take to become energy-independent and switch to clean, homegrown energy will create new jobs, reduce dangerous pollution and save businesses and families money through energy conservation. There is even a provision in the clean energy bill going through the U.S. Senate that supports training returning veterans in these new clean jobs. Some of the new jobs that we would see right away are jobs weatherizing houses to improve energy efficiency.
That is why we need Congress to take the lead and make the changes that will secure our energy future. As Gen. Anthony Zinni said, “We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives.”
In other words, we can act now or pay later.
Robin Eckstein of Appleton is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq.
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