Just last year, the National Intelligence Council called climate change one of the gravest long-term threats facing global stability, a looming peril that could undermine American and international security. This is why it’s gravely important that President Obama and Congress have begun to take action.
In June, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. By creating incentives to use and produce clean energy, this legislation will begin to free us from the foreign-oil addiction that constrains our foreign policy and dictates how we deal with both friends and foes. And by slowing climate change, this bill would help prevent the very climate change that threatens to destabilize American and global security.
All that may sound like too great an impact for a single piece of legislation to claim. It’s not. The fate of the Clean Energy and Security Act as it moves to the U.S. Senate is inseparable from the fate of America’s security.
The fact that the United States consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil but controls less than 3 percent of the supply underlines why our dependence on foreign oil affects our foreign policy. Tipping the other end of the production-consumption scale are nations like Iran, Iraq, Libya and Kazakhstan.
Of the top 10 holders of oil reserves in the world as of April 2008, all but one are considered to be failed states or in danger of becoming failed states. These are the type of trading partners to whom we are beholden, whose whims we must honor, if we are to satisfy our energy addiction.
The Clean Energy and Security Act would slash our oil needs dramatically by requiring electric utilities to meet 20 percent of their electricity demand through renewable sources and efficiencies by 2020. The legislation also reduces carbon emissions from major U.S. sources over 80 percent by 2050 compared with 2005 levels. It increases our ability to create our own energy sources — and not, incidentally, jobs — by investing billions in new energy technologies and efficiency. By 2025, the legislation could save Floridians nearly $1.8 billion in energy costs.
Our oil addiction gives those who would do us harm a powerful weapon. Terrorists clearly understand that our economic strength and our overall strength as a nation is tied to affordable energy. There were fewer than 50 known terrorist attacks against oil and gas facilities before Sept. 11, 2001. By 2006, that number reached 344.
Less tangible than terrorist threats, but equally dangerous, is the global instability that will result from the effects of climate change on land and livelihoods. Rising sea levels, drought and other weather extremes will lead to mass migration. A massive influx of people challenges even the most stable of nations and creates a vacuum of law which provides safe havens for terrorists. These conditions will undoubtedly require the deployment of an already over-worked U.S. military.
We should act now to do all we can to preclude the deployment of U.S. forces. Our national security is at stake, and our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines deserve action now before they are called upon again.
The United States cannot fight off global warming alone. But this act, though imperfect, is a vital step in the right direction and an important signal to our friends — and enemies — that we are serious about protecting the environment because we are unrelenting in our commitment to protect America.
Donald L. Kerrick of Jupiter is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former deputy national security adviser to President Bill Clinton. He is also a member of the National Security Network. He wrote this column for the Orlando Sentinel.
By Donald L. Kerrick Special to the Sentinel
August 5, 2009
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