By Donald McEachin and Adam Ebbin / Richmond Times-Dispatch / May 9, 2010

With the contentious debate on health care legislation finally resolved, Congress is moving to address other pressing national issues, like job creation and the dangers of climate change. Mitigating climate change will create jobs — legislation that puts a price on carbon and creates a national framework for cutting pollution will spark innovation and help create the green jobs of the 21st century. In fact, a University of California, Berkeley study estimates that legislation could create as many as 50,000 new jobs in the commonwealth and 1.9 million nationwide by 2020.

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We also must address the serious challenges that climate change poses to our national security. The U.S. imports 60 percent of its oil, much of it from Middle Eastern countries that are not stable and not friendly to us. Our military, already stretched to the limit, has committed thousands of troops to that region to increase stability and reduce terrorism.

Many of our veterans have expressed support for congressional action. A recent poll found that 73 percent of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans support clean energy climate change legislation, while 79 percent believe ending our dependence on foreign oil is important to national security, and 67 percent agree that such legislation will help their own economic prospects.

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