Climate Controls

The movement to persuade lawmakers and the public to think of energy and climate issues through the prism of national security is picking up new adherents, as activists step up pressure on the Senate to pass landmark legislation aimed at establishing controls for combating global warming and promoting alternatives to fossil fuels, Defense Environment Alert reports this week. Specifically:

Picking up on a growing push to paint climate and energy issues as national security questions, the Center for American Progress (CAP), an influential liberal think tank, Aug. 26 added its support to grassroots efforts to push the Senate to follow the House in passing sweeping climate legislation. CAP is headed by John Podesta, former Clinton White House chief of staff and co-chair of President Obama’s transition team.

CAP becomes the latest member of Operation Free, a coalition of activists and veterans associations seeking to raise awareness about the links between energy, climate and national security. Operation Free is headed by the Truman National Security Project, and includes veterans organizations VoteVets and VetPAC, the National Security Network, National Security Initiative and the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate Change (Defense Environment Alert, Aug. 18).

Operation Free later this month plans to lobby on Capitol Hill for greater Senate support of the pending climate legislation, a source with the coalition says.

CAP issued a report on climate change and energy security Aug. 25, calling for, among other steps, the widespread adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel. CAP points out that natural gas is abundant, sourced from more domestic sources than oil, and is less greenhouse gas intensive than other fossil fuels.

The Brookings Institution think tank also released a report Aug. 27 calling for DOD to give top billing to energy use cuts and alternative energy generation in its forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review. The department should reduce its energy use by 20 percent by 2025, and be a “net zero” energy consumer -- generating as much power as it uses -- by 2030, according to the Brookings paper.

The grassroots push comes as former Sen. John Warner is lobbying senators in favor of giving the Senate Armed Services Committee jurisdiction over climate legislation, on the basis that climate change and energy policy will have a major impact on the military. Conflict exacerbated by climate change, and global warming itself, will affect the armed forces, and therefore the committee should have a say over the legislation, Warner argues.