Veterans travel to promote renewable energy

By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer

When Ed May deployed to the Middle East as part of Desert Shield in 1990, the former soldier said he knew the conflict was about oil and predicted the U.S. would be back there in 10 years.

“I, as a soldier, knew then as long as America was dependent on oil, it was going to be that way,” the 53-year-old veteran from Indiana said Wednesday in downtown Fayetteville.

May was among the veterans traveling this month on a 21-state bus tour called Operation Free to highlight the importance of cleaner, renewable energy that weans the country from foreign oil. The group pulled into Freedom Memorial Park just before noon in a biodiesel bus painted blue for the trip. The bus had stopped in Raleigh before Fayetteville and was headed to Greensboro afterward.

According to a spokeswoman, Operation Free is a coalition of military veterans and national security groups hoping to raise awareness of the national security risks posed by global warming and America’s reliance on foreign oil found in hostile parts of the world.

Raf Noboa, who was an Army sergeant in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, said some of the money people spend at the pump ultimately ends up in the pockets of terrorists.

“We cannot afford the pressing course we are on,” he said.

Another speaker was Phillip Gilfus, an Iraqi veteran who is active in the Cumberland County Democratic Party. He said the country needs to pass some version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which passed the U.S. House in June.

State Rep. Rick Glazier, a Democrat from Fayetteville, said that although there is ongoing debate about the cause of global warming, rising temperatures nonetheless will mean higher ocean levels and more hurricanes.

“So for all of us, a major security and economic issue for this state involves coping with nature,” he said.

Glazier is on the House Homeland Security and Military Veterans Committee.

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