Protection comes too late for this oil-covered marsh.

Guest Post by Ashkan Bayatpour

I just spent four hours on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico with fellow veterans and two retired Generals, touring the damage that the oil spill has had on the coast and the economy here in Louisiana. As a Gulf native, I know how much this will hurt the people here, and across America, who depend on the region for their livelihoods. But I also came as a veteran to see just how bad it would be if oil platforms were attacked by terrorist groups.

Seeing miles of damaged coastline really brings home just how unreliable one source of energy is and how vulnerable our dependence has made us – especially for this Navy and Iraq war veteran.

Check out the photos from our trip to the Gulf.

We know from attacks in the Middle East that oil infrastructure – pipelines and platforms – are increasingly targeted by terrorist groups. Being out here on the water made it very clear the massive impact that a terrorist attack on an oil rig would have. And I’m not the only one – We’ve got the Coast Guard standing watch on oil platforms in the Persian Gulf and Senator Jim Webb asking for an accounting of security on domestic offshore rigs.

We’ve put together an album of photos – see what it looks like down on the water.

Of course, the best way to prevent an attack on oil infrastructure is to move beyond oil. Today’s trip reminded me why we’re doing what we’re doing – as it has for so many other Americans who want to see their country secure and prosperous. We’re glad you’re along for the fight.

Ashkan Bayatpour is a veteran of the US Navy.

Matt Victoriano, a former Marine who served in Iraq and who now serves in the Army National Guard, will speak out alongside other vets, about what he sees as a vital need to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources.

“Most of us over in Iraq at some point were guarding oil or gasoline supply convoys or oil refineries. Instead of taking out the people that need to be taken out, we’re wasting assets.”

Victoriano believes it makes more sense to keep our energy dollars at home rather than sending them abroad, and that America has the potential to produce its own energy through cleaner means. He says the Department of Defense is already undertaking “green” projects across the country. He also points to the new Quadrennial Defense Review, released Monday by the Defense Department, which lists climate change as a factor in national security.

“It recognizes that, through our own use of carbon-based energy, we’re helping to cause climate change in the forms of droughts, floods, hurricanes, or more powerful hurricanes, that are destabilizing regions throughout the world and creating breeding grounds for terrorists.”

The tour stops today at noon across from the Space Needle in downtown Seattle. It’s one of more than 60 stops in 17 states, and the tour is part of a national group known as Operation Free. Its next stop is Montana. For information about the campaign, visit www.OperationFree.net.

Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security groups promoting the relationship between national security and dependence on foreign energy, made a stop in downtown Reno on Tuesday to talk about the issue. The group that came is part of the “Veterans for American Power” 21-city bus tour and met with Jim Groth, director of the Nevada Energy Office and other veterans and concerned citizens.

Among the touring veterans was Robin Eckstein, of Appleton, Wis., who served in Iraq in 2003. As a member of the National Guard Reserve, it was Eckstein’s job to drive refueling trucks to remote military installations for their generators and vehicles. Every time she drove into the desert, she said, there was the threat of attack on herself and fellow soldiers.

Her connection to war and energy was twofold, she said. She was participating in a military operation in oil-rich territory and she was risking life and limb to bring fuel to troops fighting that war. More solar energy technology being used in the field by the military would have meant fewer trips into harm’s way, she said, and less dependence on foreign oil might have precluded her from being there in the first place.

“As a veteran myself you say ‘national security’ and ‘climate change’ and I get it,” she said, adding that the military has initiated some major steps toward energy efficiency in its operations. “Some people need the pieces put together for them.”

Eckstein was among half a dozen veterans to talk Wednesday near the Truckee River about their experiences. Chuck Tyler, a native of Virginia who served in the Army for 10 years, talked about helping the victims of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 on the East Coast and about his experience in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Enduring Freedom. Both climate change leading to natural disasters and conflicts in unstable parts of the world made the work more dangerous, he said.

“Desperate people with no food, no water and no means to take care of themselves become tomorrow’s insurgents,” he said.

“The U.S. spends $1 billion a day buying crude oil from other countries, which puts money into the hands of those that don’t support us and increases the dangers to our troops,” Operation Free campaign manager and Marine veteran Jonathan Murray said in a press release. “In a world faced with the unfortunate reality of spontaneous terrorist threats, Operation Free calls attention to the way in which energy independence makes our world more stable and less dangerous.”

Operation Free was formed in part to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009 but stalled in the Senate. It would have, among other things, required retail electricity suppliers to meet 20 percent of their demand through renewable electricity as well as electricity savings by 2020 and established a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions.

Politics is the major obstacle for any meaningful environmental legislation, said John Scire, a longtime Sparks resident and professor of environmental policy and international conflict at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“I don’t think we can get anything through until Republicans stop voting as a block and vote on individual issues,” Scire said after Tuesday’s Operation Free gathering.

Scire went on to say that Nevada will have a difficult time attracting companies to come here and set up solar and other renewable energy production facilities. First, he said, Nevada has has to compete with states like Ohio and Massachusetts where there are empty manufacturing plants already built and a skilled workforce in place to operate such energy production. Also, he said, the state already imposes very little in taxes on such business which means Nevada has little ability to offer further financial incentives. Finally, he pointed to a sub par education system and labor force in the Silver State.

“When they look at the university system, especially the community colleges where students learn technical skills, (companies) get no warm fuzzy feeling,” Scire said. “They set up knowing they have to bring in everyone.”

As director of the state’s energy office, Groth said he is working to bring companies like Chevron and British Petroleum here but echoed that Nevada faces challenges, especially when competing against other states that also want the business. With enough investment, Nevada could be producing three times its current output of geothermal power and five times its solar energy output, he said.

“In order to have a secure future, America needs to return energy production to America,” said Chaney Harrison, who served three tours in Iraq in the Air Force. “We need to put Americans to work producing energy in this country.”

The veterans of Operation Free were not stumping for any particular state, but rather to bring energy-producing jobs to America. Patrick Bellon, a Louisiana native and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said this message is not new but that people tend to pay more attention when veterans are the ones sending it.

“If there are fewer wars, there will be fewer veterans,” Bellon said. “We’ll all be out of a job, but that’s better, right?”

For more information, visit www.operationfree.net.

Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010 | 5:18 p.m.

As Americans’ dependency on oil and foreign resources increases, military veterans and clean energy activists are traveling the country to educate citizens about what they say will be the repercussions of outsourcing energy.

The Operation Free coalition’s National Veterans Tour for Clean Energy and Security kicked off the two-month tour Jan. 13 in Washington, D.C., and will travel to 16 states.

The tour made its first stop in Nevada this past weekend at the National Guard Las Vegas Readiness Center, 4500 W. Silverado Ranch Blvd. The forum on Saturday consisted of four military veterans and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Army veteran Robin Eckstein said the tour is important because she says U.S. money spent on foreign resources is helping to fund terrorist organizations. She was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and was stationed at the Baghdad airport.

“We’re funding both sides of the war,” she said. “People need to let their friends and family know about climate change and the national security connection.”

Sgt. Alex Cornell du Houx, of the U.S. Marine Corps, said he became involved with the cause in 2006.

According to Operation Free, the United States sends $500,000 each minute to foreign regimes for oil and uses 25 percent of the world’s supply — more than all of the countries of the European Union combined.

Cornell du Houx said Nevada is taking a lead with alternative and solar energy projects. He said more states should use multiple forms of energy to prevent the country from relying only on oil.

“Each state has a unique ability to take on clean energy,” he said.

Resident Dick Collins, 63, of Las Vegas, said even though alternative energy projects should be explored, the United States is still outsourcing equipment. In Texas, for example, generators for wind energy are coming from China, Collins said.

Reid responded, saying American-made products are important and the government should focus on more manufacturers at home before buying overseas.

Climate change was another topic discussed at the forum. Reid said global warming shouldn’t be ignored because its effects already have been felt.

For more information on the National Veterans Tour for Clean Energy and Security, visit www.operationfree.net. The group’s next forum will be Tuesday in Reno.

U.S. Army veteran George Shoemaker of Flagstaff said he understands the need to create more renewable energy sources to wean our country off foreign oil that helps to fund America’s enemies.

But while those renewable energy sources and infrastructure are being created, we should start drilling for our own oil, he said.

Shoemaker’s idea came during a roundtable discussion Friday among about 20 veterans and residents concerned about climate change and how it relates to security for the country. The Operation Free National Veterans for American Power Tour made a stop at the American Legion post in Flagstaff.

“Climate change makes the world a more dangerous place,” said Chuck Tyler, a U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq War with Operation Free. Carbon dioxide emissions affecting the climate can cause droughts that devastate and destabilize poorer countries — and that allows terrorists to find safe havens.

Additionally, said LeAnn Dunn, a National Guard veteran of the Iraq War, America’s dependence on foreign oil affects the country’s national security by supporting terrorist organizations.

“Every time we fill up at the pump, we are putting money into the hands of terrorists,” Dunn said.

As part of the Department of Defense’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, climate change was acknowledged as a threat to instability throughout the world.

Climate change is also acknowledged as a concern by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The group explained that all branches of the military have started working on reducing carbon emissions and moving toward renewable energy sources — becoming a front-runner in the process.

MORE HYBRID VEHICLES?

As an example, solar power instead of gas-powered generators is making its way into the field to power base electrical systems. By reducing the need in vehicles for fuel, less resources need to be used to get fuel to remote locations where the military functions.

Veteran Robin Eckstein said that when she was in Iraq, she often wondered why the military wasn’t using more energy-efficient vehicles like back home. Working as a driver in convoys, she would face improvised explosive devices and sniper fire every time she went out the gate at her base.

“If we could only be more energy-efficient, that would mean fewer times outside the gate,” she explained.

When Shoemaker floated his idea about drilling for oil locally, the group explained that the oil industry functions in a “global market” where there is no guarantee that oil drilled in the U.S. will be sold to our country.

But an Operation Free member, also a Marine veteran, said the result of drilling domestically would just be more oil going into the market, increasing climate change effects.

FEELING BETTER ABOUT IT

Vietnam War veteran and Flagstaff resident Randy Luther attended the discussion out of curiosity.

An electrician by trade, he said he’s personally watched and calculated in his head considerable carbon emissions at places he’s worked in the past. Those emissions have to be having an effect on the planet.

“There’s something going on,” he said.

Problem is, he said, he doesn’t know who to believe. Typically, veterans are conservative people who support conservative causes. Some conservatives, he said, continue to believe that climate change isn’t happening and there appears to be large amounts of information out there.

So when veterans support efforts to stem the effects of climate change, Luther said that voice adds to the argument.

“This does make me feel better about it,” he said.

The tour is expected to make stops in 16 states across the country.

By Jimy Valenti
THE COLORADO STATESMAN

Veterans hit the state Capitol’s west steps last Friday, educating citizens and lawmakers on the connection between climate change and national security.

“At first people say, ‘what are you talking about, climate change and national security?’” said 24-year Navy veteran Rick Hegdall. “And then people understand. If we buy fuel from unstable areas the cost of that fuel is more than we pay at the pump. Our military is being used, our treasury and most importantly lives are at stake, keeping the oil flowing to us.”

The Veterans for American Power National Tour, sponsored by Operation Free, stopped in Denver as part of a two-month national bus tour where veterans, most of whom served in Iraq and Afghanistan, discussed America’s dependence on foreign oil, its eventual funding of terrorist organizations and its responsibility for destabilizing climate change.

Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, himself a Navy veteran, spoke at the event along with Iraq war veteran Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, whose son has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rice stressed the need for domestic sources of clean energy so energy policy will not enter into the discussion when deciding whether to go to war.

“Our dependence on foreign oil is in our decision cycle concerning national security and international relations, particularly when we deal with countries in the Middle East,” said Rice. “What we would like to be able to do is get energy out of that decision cycle. We may still have moral obligations or other security interests in the Middle East, but we can at least take energy out of the equation.”

Robin Eckstein served in Iraq in 2003. She drove a truck for the Army from Bagdad Airport to various outposts around the country delivering water and fuel. She said the daily drive was always at risk to IEDs and sniper fire.

“If we could have made just one less trip a week when delivering fuel we could have been that much safer,” said Eckstein, who now volunteers for Operation Free. “A more fuel efficient army is a safer one.”

The representatives also spoke about the economic benefits of green jobs, which can’t be outsourced, and the importance of greater American energy independence.

“There is great synergy between what were doing under the dome and what these veterans are doing out on the road,” said Shaffer.

Over the next two months, the veterans’ tour will travel to 16 states and hold nearly 60 events.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2010

CONTACT
David Solimini, 757-876-0295

Defense Dept. Strategic Plan: Climate Change a Threat

Quadrennial Review says climate change is acting as an “accelerant of instability” & “weakening fragile governments”

Time for Senate action to prevent threats to American security

Today, in an unprecedented statement, the Department of Defense highlighted broad geopolitical and security threats posed to the United States by climate change when it released the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. The QDR is the Defense Department’s definitive statement of strategy, threats, and long-term planning.

In response to the threat highlighted by the Defense Department, Operation Free’s Veterans for American Power Tour is currently criss-crossing the nation in support of clean energy legislation in the US Senate.

The Department’s Review says that the effects of climate change are already being felt in the United States and highlighted the fact that “climate change will have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty … and weakening fragile governments.” Weak governments and failed states are often the safe havens and breeding grounds of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban. These groups are free to recruit vulnerable people in places like Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria without interference. Already-fragile governments are often unable to cope with the floods, famine, drought, and crop failures that are caused by climate change.

“With this statement, it is clear that action is needed to prevent climate change in the cause of American safety and security. The longer the we delay, the longer these threats have time to gather,” said Jonathan Murray, Operation Free Campaign Manager and Marine veteran. “The global instability caused by droughts, floods, and famine will mean more threats to our security and more soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines put into harm’s way. ”

The Review has never before included statements about the threat of climate change, highlighting a defense community consensus that “climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, increase the spread of disease, and may help spur mass migration,” all threats to regional and international security.

The report also notes that America’s energy dependence is cause for concern. Every day, America sends over $1 billion overseas to unfriendly nations to purchase oil. Previous reporting has noted that significant funding for terrorist organizations comes from oil-rich Persian Gulf nations.

The QDR is available online at: http://www.defense.gov/QDR/QDR%20as%20of%2026JAN10%200700.pdf. Section V of the QDR contains the passages on climate change quoted above.

USEFUL RESOURCES
Military and Security Leaders on Climate Change:

• The Central Intelligence Agency has opened a Center on Climate Change and National Security. (Central Intelligence Agency, September 25, 2009)

• In 2008, a National Intelligence Assessment from the National Intelligence Council said “global climate change will have wide-ranging implications for US national security interests over the next 20 years.” (Senate Testimony of Dr. Thomas Fingar, June 28, 2008)

• Former Senator John Warner (R-VA), former Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former CIA Director James Woolsey, Retired General Anthony Zinni, and Retired Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, General Wesley Clark, have all stated that climate change threatens our security.

Terrorist Funding and Dependence on Oil:

• Saudis Faulted for Funding Terror. Los Angelis Times, April 2008. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/02/nation/na-terror2

• Holbrooke: Persian Gulf Money Key to Taliban Insurgency. CNN. August 25, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/25/afghanistan.pakistan.holbrooke/

• The Next President: Mastering a Daunting Agenda by Richard Holbrooke. Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008. Holbrooke is the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Saudi Arabia, which, although it has long worked with Washington to bolster world oil output and keep prices within an acceptable range, has simultaneously allowed billions of (ostensibly nongovernmental) dollars to go toward building extremist madrasahs and funding terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda.” http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63563/richard-holbrooke/the-next-president

• The Saudi Connection: How Billions in oil money spawned a global terror network. US News & World Report. December 7, 2003.   http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031215/15terror.htm

• Oil Dollars Fund the Insurgency, Iraq and US Say. New York Times, February 5, 2006. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E6DE173EF936A35751C0A9609C8B63

Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy. It is currently conducting the National Veterans for American Power Tour, a 2 month, 16 state bus tour of US military veterans who, at 65 stops across the nation, will highlight the connection between security and climate change. More online at www.OperationFree.net.

National Journal. Energy & Environment. Jan 27.

Graham: Congress Needs A Win On Climate Policy

Amy Harder
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said today that skeptical Republicans and Democrats should throw their support behind climate change legislation not only because it’s good for the economy and the environment, but because Congress desperately needs a win under its belt.
“We tried immigration. It’s hard. And we failed. We tried Social Security. It’s hard. And we failed. We tried health care. It’s really hard. And it looks like we’re going to have to start over again,” Graham somberly told a luncheon audience of energy and climate advocates on the Hill. “On the energy, climate change front, I don’t want to add that to the list. There is no reason in my mind that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party can’t come together.”
Graham reiterated the calls by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and White House energy czar Carol Browner earlier today that any climate and energy bill must include a price on greenhouse gas emissions. He also told reporters later that there are Republicans willing to vote for a bill that has some type of emissions control if there are robust provisions for nuclear energy and offshore oil drilling.
“You’ll get some votes for a comprehensive package that you wouldn’t get for standalone proposals,” Graham said. “If we make the energy piece attractive enough for Republicans, there is going to be more than a handful that would agree to emissions controls.”
What type of emissions control system could garner the most support still needs to be worked out, Graham said. He expressed support for the cap-and-dividend bill sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-
Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. This bill would cap emissions at the sources, such as power plants, and send rebates directly back to consumers to offset higher energy prices.
Calling his recent meeting with the two senators “eye-opening,” Graham said their proposal “had simplicity to it that I didn’t quite understand. It had many attractive components.”
Graham was one of the several key lawmakers and administration officials speaking at a national security and clean economy forum hosted by several advocacy groups, including Operation Free and the Blue Green Alliance. In addition to Kerry and Browner, Energy Secretary Steven Chu also spoke.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Jan 25.

Vets wage war on oil dependence / Members of armed services link renewable energy to national security

By Emily Anderson
U.S. Navy veteran Rick Hegdahl patrolled oil tankers during part of his time in Kuwait from 2005 to 2006.
Now retired after 24 years in the military, Hegdahl doesn’t want future generations of soldiers to pay with their lives to secure and procure overseas oil.
Hegdahl, who lives in Washington state, visited Grand Junction and the offices of U.S. Rep. John Salazar and Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall on Monday. He and other veterans are traveling the country with Operation Free to talk about cultivating renewable resources and preserving national security.
“I know I can’t fix everything, but with the efforts I make now, my daughter will breathe clean air and maybe her children won’t have to fight wars to secure energy for the U.S.,” Hegdahl said.
Operation Free is a group of veterans and national security organizations encouraging lawmakers to pass climate change legislation. Operation Free is traveling the western United States through March, speaking with the offices of national legislators.
Colorado native Brian Esquibel has served five tours with the U.S. Navy in the Middle East since entering the military in 1989. Twice, he’s returned from a tour and struggled to find a job. He said he hopes encouraging legislators through Operation Free to approve climate change legislation that helps create jobs in the renewable energy sector will help veterans find jobs and give the United States more energy resources at home.
New renewable energy jobs could help the Western Slope economy, Hegdahl said.
“There’s no reason to believe if more jobs are created in one industry, other jobs will shut off,” he said, adding a transition from non-renewable to renewable jobs will be gradual and the two sides of energy production are likely to occur simultaneously.
U.S. Army veteran Robin Eckstein of Wisconsin, who also traveled to Grand Junction Monday with Operation Free, said people in Grand Junction can help simply with conservation, or using tax credits for things like putting solar panels or new windows on a house.
Esquibel said the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are sky high in no small part due to fuel costs. He said his 180-person unit paid about $100,000 a month for fueling vehicles. Esquibel said he hopes the United States will work to fuel vehicles with resources from home.
“Think about the future, because one day the spigot is going to turn off forever,” he said.

CQ/Roll Call. Congress.org. Jan 28
Veterans group pushes climate bill/At rallies, Operation Free says climate change poses a threat to national security
By Ambreen Ali

A group of activists is taking a different angle to argue for cap and trade: national security.
As part of a bus tour through 16 states, Operation Free will hold town halls and campus meetings and interview with local media to argue that climate change is a threat to national security.
Their arguments: Extremists thrive in areas where rising sea levels and natural disasters have caused food and water shortages. Foreign oil dollars can fall in the hands of terrorist groups, while humanitarian relief missions stretch an already taxed military.
“People like me have seen first hand the effects of our energy policy,” said Jonathan Gensler, who served during the first year of the current Iraq war. He participated in two Operation Free bus tours last fall through his home state of West Virginia.
At the local meetings, Gensler tries to use his credibility as a veteran to sway people to care about climate change.
“I’ve buried a number of friends …. A couple of them died from car bombs that were funded in some part by American dollars being sent to foreign oil dictators,” he said.
Hundreds of veterans like Gensler have participated since the buses took off last summer. The group is currently on its third and biggest tour, which kicked off in Washington, D.C., last week.
After 11 stops in Virginia and Missouri, the bus will make its way through Colorado. By the end of February, they plan to get through Arizona, Washington, North Dakota and Ohio.
The project is supported by the Truman National Security Project, an advocacy group started by veterans who supported Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) during his 2004 presidential run. The group has since committed itself to one of Kerry’s biggest priorities: passing a climate bill.
“The threat climate change is causing in places like sub-Saharan Africa is a destabilizing force,” said Jonathan Powers, also an Iraq vet and chief operating officer of the Truman Project. “It creates migration, fragile governments. That’s exactly the type of breeding ground where we have to go and fight.”
The Pentagon is expected to echo that argument in a Quadrennial Defense Review due out Monday. Congress requires the study every four years to help the military chart its way forward.
Climate change is finally part of that discussion, Kerry said Wednesday as he previewed the report at a climate conference on Capitol Hill.
“It’s going to come out and list climate change for the first time as an instability factor that affects our troops and may in fact wind up costing us lives,” Kerry said. “We already have millions of people who are what you call climate refugees.”
Kerry is working with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) to draft a so-called “tripartisan” solution.
“As a Republican, I believe clean air is a good thing,” Graham said at the conference, emphasizing the need to find domestic energy sources.
The lawmakers disagree on the path forward, however. Many liberals oppose offshore drilling and want to focus on non-carbon energy sources. Conservatives are concerned about jobs that depend on mining for coal and other resources.
Earlier in the day, Graham released a statement dismissing the House climate bill (HR 2454 ) as “too onerous on business.” He also said there weren’t enough backers in the Senate for the energy and climate bills currently under consideration.
But he added that Congress must keep trying.
“Doing nothing continues an irresponsible practice of sending $440 billion a year overseas to buy oil from people who don’t like us very much,” Graham said.
On the buses, the veterans try to relay that message through their personal experiences.
“We’re dealing with a different type of threat, an intangible threat,” said Douglas L. Peters. He was part of Iraq and Afghanistan invasion forces, and his Marine unit was the first to suffer casualties.
“I started seeing how America would have to interact with the world going forward,” Peters said. “This is not your Sierra Club type argument anymore.”
Peters said the strongest opposition he faces is from people who believe climate change is too elusive to pose a real threat. Some veterans also oppose the group, partly because they see environmentalism as a liberal issue.
“It should be very apolitical,” he said. “That’s what I can’t emphasize enough.”

News-Leader.com

Veterans group to visit, hold energy roundtable

Participants in the Veterans for American Power National Tour will come to Springfield today to take part in a roundtable discussion, according to a news release.

Over the next two months, the bus carrying veterans will travel to 16 additional states and hold more than 60 events.

Today’s session will be in Room 312 at Plaster Student Union.

The Veterans for American Power Tour is a campaign of Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy, according to the news release.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Veterans say America’s dependence on foreign oil fuels terrorism

By Steve Birmingham

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Stopping America’s dependence on foreign oil will go a long way toward stopping terrorism and attacks on American service people deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That’s the message of Operation Free, a group of military veterans traveling across the United States preaching the gospel of freedom from fossil fuel dependence and the development of alternative energy sources.

Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security organizations, stopped at Washington University Monday for a roundtable discussion on the topic of foreign oil and its relation to terrorism. The stop was their second on a 16-city bus tour.

Tim Smith, of Operation Free, said America spends $450 billion per year for foreign oil and some of that money finds to way to educate and arm terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and the Taliban.

A veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Smith said while in Iraq he helped provide security for convoys carrying oil between different forward operating bases in Iraq and said seeing the sacrifices other soldiers made to protect those convoys motivated him to advocate for energy independence.

”Operation Free is a coalition of veterans that are coming together to invest in ourselves and create jobs for other veterans and other people in areas leaning more towards renewable energy,” Smith said.

The veterans taking part in Operation Free urged everyone to contact their elected officials in Washington, D.C. and tell them to move forward with alternative energy programs and to do everything possible to stop America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Matt Victoriano, a Marine who spent several tours in Iraq, said his experiences there led him “to ask a lot of questions” about why the United States is funding, indirectly, the very terrorists the military is fighting against.

He said the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are all currently taking steps to reduce the need for them to use foreign oil.

“Our energy policy is dependent on countries that want us and our way of life, dead,” Victoriano said. “This is something our military, all its branches and the CIA have come to recognize.”

Ed May, an Army staff sergeant, said he saw the burning oil fields in Kuwait as he arrived as part of Operation Desert Shield and later in Desert Storm, and it changed his way of thinking about oil dependence.

I remember seeing the hundreds of oil field fires the Iraqis set as they were leaving Kuwait,” May said. “That first night there it was raining and the rain was black with oil as it passed through the oil smoke. I was standing in it thinking, ‘you know, we’re not really here to just liberate the Kuwaitis, we’re here to liberate the Kuwaiti oil for the United States and the rest of the world.’”

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan attended the roundtable and said Operation Free was “shining a light on an important topic” and added “America’s dependence on foreign oil makes no sense.”

“It’s not just a threat to our economy, but to our national security,” Carnahan said.

Carnahan mentioned how gas prices spiked last year and caused costs for fertilizer, diesel, corn and feed to rise at her family’s cattle farm near Rolla.

“The threat to our national security is real and obvious and the threat to our economic security is real and obvious. The threats to our security are going to be real so long as we are dependent on this foreign oil.”

“Whatever country gets it right in figuring out our new independent energy future is going to be the economic powerhouse in the future,” she said. “One thing we all know is in the United States we are better at innovation than anyplace else in the world, and we’re better at commercializing that innovation that anyplace else. So it’s a terrific opportunity if we just think about this in a sensible, common sense way.”

A group of military veterans kicked off a nationwide bus tour today designed to urge action on energy and climate change legislation.
The two-month tour, organized by Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security organizations, will focus on drawing a connection between climate change and national security.

“This is an issue that affects our national security, our homeland security, our energy policy, our environmental policy and our economic policy,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, at a press conference outside the Capitol building today. “There is no other issue that touches every single aspect of American and international life like this issue of climate change and energy independence.”
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The tour will include stops at VFW halls, colleges and other venues in 16 states. The group says veterans have already signed on to participate in local rallies, and it hopes to rally other vets to the cause.

“Our dependence on foreign oil makes us vulnerable. It is providing funding to those who would seek to hurt us,” said Jon Powers, an Iraq war veteran and chief operating officer for the Truman National Security Project, a sponsor of Operation Free. He said he will be taking a shift on the bus at some point during the two months.

“We’re hoping to get voters across the country to pick up the phone and call their senators,” said David Solimini, media director for Operation Free. “We’ve found it’s a great way to raise awareness in small localities, so it’s not just ‘I saw a TV ad’ but becomes ‘I saw a guy from next door talking about this.’” This tour was preceded by two smaller bus tours last year.

More than 50 veterans have agreed to take a shift on the bus during this tour, with at least seven veterans traveling on the biodiesel-powered bus at all times. Most of the involved veterans served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The 45-foot Operation Free bus will make its first stop in Virginia on Saturday and will then move on to Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
Operation Free is supported by the National Security Initiative, VoteVets.org, VetPAC, and the Truman National Security Project, among other groups.

“There is no greater patriotic act than standing up on this issue. What you see on the battlefields around the world is the result of us not having a policy on this issue,” Markey said.

Of course, this great news wasn’t received well by oil-funded so-called think tanks. For example, the self-described “conservative” NCPPR and several media outlets were quick to criticize this move to protect American security.

See Media Matters’ fantastic breakdown of this textbook smear.

While Sean Hannity may claim that “the CIA director redirects manpower to monitor climate change, but is it all the cost — at the cost of our security, your security, your family’s security?” it turns out that “the monitoring program has little or no impact on regular intelligence gathering” according to Federal officials. In fact, the information that is being given by the CIA to the US scientific community is data that is already being collected for other purposes.

“The monitoring program has little or no impact on regular intelligence gathering, federal officials
said, but instead releases secret information already collected or takes advantage of opportunities
to record environmental data when classified sensors are otherwise idle or passing over wilderness.”
– New York Times.

It seems clear that rather than interfere with national and global security, tracking climate change can prevent future conflicts. Nations that are already unstable can become failed states as climate disruption causes famine, flood and refugee crises — Failed states are prime recruiting targets for terrorist groups.

Vice President Biden’s announcement Wednesday of a $5 billion increase in a clean energy industry tax incentive is a badly-needed boost to a U.S. manufacturing sector that has taken it on the chin much of the last thirty years.

This hits home for me and fellow Operation Free veterans who just came off the latest installment of the Veterans for American Power tour through Indiana, West Virginia, and the Southwestern area of Virginia.  We rolled through once-mighty manufacturing areas like Northwest Indiana and the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia – cogs in the economic engine that helped defeat the Axis in World War II and outlast the Soviet Union in the Cold War (and areas not unlike my own Rust Belt hometown of Meadville, in Northwest PA).

In Wheeling, we talked to soldiers and Marines who came home from the battlefields of World War II and Korea and immediately found work at one of the many steel mills and foundries in the area.  This was a clear path to the middle class, where a hard-working young man recently out of the service could get a job in the mill and start a family – honest work for decent pay.

No longer.

Glenn Kunkel, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war who has been a stalwart of the bus tour, is from Toronto, Ohio, just upstream from Wheeling.  When he came back from his battlefield, the local mill that had once kept much of his family employed wasn’t hiring.  (As the Washington Post reports today in a long story about the plight of the Youngstown/Warren area – north of where we were on the tour and just west of my hometown – the story is the same across much of the former industrial heartland).

Glenn and I are both here at Operation Free primarily because we care about the need to strengthen our national security by investing in clean, American energy.  But we’re also here to encourage the growth of new clean energy jobs in our home areas, to harness the hard-working spirit of the industrial heartland where we both grew up.

Let’s be clear – this is not just simple nostalgia for a bygone era.  Many economists – including Lawrence Summers, Director of the National Economic Council at the White House – believe that the U.S. is in for a long period of persistent double-digit unemployment if we don’t do something serious to create new sectors of jobs.  While development of a new clean energy economy here in America won’t replace every job that has been lost over the years, it is a fundamental component in the long-term recovery of the American economy, and vital to our continued strength as a world power.  Furthermore, my native Rust Belt region is an ideal area for clean energy manufacturing development, owing to the pool of well-trained blue-collar workers who are currently un- or under-employed.

Since taking office, the Obama-Biden Administration has made progress towards greater development of clean energy manufacturing here in America (as outlined in a recent memo from the Vice President).  The $5 billion increase in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit is only the latest example of this commitment.

But this is only a fraction of what is required.  Operation Free is urging Congress to take the next step by passing a strong clean energy bill that includes market-based incentives to spur development of new sources of energy that can be produced right here in America. And even with the passage of a bill like the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733, currently in the Senate), it will take a long, sustained national effort (not unlike the Manhattan Project or Apollo program) to create the right environment for clean energy industries to prosper.

The jobs won’t come back overnight.  We aren’t promising that the passage of clean energy legislation will bring back every single job that has been lost in the Rust Belt in the last four decades, or that all veterans returning home from overseas to the Ohio or Mahoning Valleys today will land a middle-class “green-collar” job tomorrow.

But what we do know is that the status quo is unacceptable.  The status quo has led to billions of dollars in oil money ending up in the hands of our enemies.  And it has seen untold thousands of jobs lost in the industrial heartland.

Development of a new clean energy economy will put America back in control of its own destiny by reducing our over-reliance on foreign energy sources.  We’ll make the world a less dangerous place by mitigating the effects of climate change.

And most significantly for my home region, the development of a clean energy economy will start putting the hard-working men and women of the industrial heartland back to work building the energy infrastructure of the future.

Energy independence for security

Leaders from around the world have now spent nearly two weeks in Copenhagen, looking to sketch a framework for a global climate change treaty. Economists, environmentalists and activists of all stripes have joined them. These are traditional participants for summits on climate change. However, there’s one group whose presence in Copenhagen is far from ordinary: military veterans from America who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Men and women who served our nation in uniform, along with representatives from the U.S., are attending the summit to raise awareness not only about climate change but about what climate change means to national security. Their attendance raises an obvious question: why participate?

The answer is simple. Many of our veterans believe that America’s dependence on foreign oil is a threat to our national security and, according to the Department of Defense and the CIA, so is climate change. Veterans will not lament the plight of polar bears; they will not get distressed over slowly melting glaciers. In a world where we face the unfortunate reality of spontaneous terrorist threats, veterans will call attention to the way in which energy independence makes our world more stable and less dangerous.

According to the CIA, climate change is a “threat multiplier” that makes pre-existing security challenges worse: A changing climate causes storms and flooding that force mass migrations and spark the creation of refugee camps where extremists can hide and recruit the next generation of terrorists. According to experts, climate change threatens military installations and degrades military equipment, putting island bases underwater and increasing maintenance costs. Experts also believe climate change leads to drought and famine and causes people to fight over scarce resources.

When our nation’s military and intelligence experts say climate change is a threat to national security, elected leaders should pay attention.

Our veterans will take this message to Copenhagen — and they do not stand alone. In last year’s election, every presidential candidate said a national energy policy is a matter of national security. A national energy policy that moves us away from dependence on oil from countries that do not like us, invests in alternative fuels and reduces climate change is a policy that makes our nation more secure.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), himself an honored veteran, has long spoken of the need to reduce our carbon footprint and move toward energy independence. On three separate occasions, he authored an approach that is market-based and modeled on past successes — a cap-and-trade system to fight acid rain and promote greener technologies, which creates jobs.

Experts are expressing not only concern about climate change, they know for certain that America’s dependence on oil from abroad puts money in the pockets of unfriendly countries and bullets in the guns of terrorists. A national energy policy that invests in wind, solar, biofuels, plug-in hybrids and alternative fuels and expands drilling can drive us to independence from foreign oil. In fact, if just 27 percent of the vehicles on the road were hybrids — like the Ford Escape or the Toyota Prius — we could end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. Our veterans believe this is an achievable goal, and so do we.

The House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act over the summer, while the Senate has begun putting together its own version of clean energy legislation. The fact that Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are leading the charge is an encouraging sign the United States will pass legislation that borrows the best ideas from both sides of the aisle and recognizes this is not a Democratic or Republican problem but an American challenge.

As active-duty service members, we stood together and served our country. As veterans, we continue to do so. Now all of us, as veterans, active military members and civilians, must firmly stand together to fight for our nation’s security.

Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio), is a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve and a C-130 pilot. Jonathan Murray, advocacy director for Operation Free, is a Marine Corp veteran. ]]> http://www.operationfree.net/2009/12/18/op-free-op-ed-with-rep-boccieri-in-politico/feed/ 0 http://www.operationfree.net/2009/12/16/legislator-reservist-to-report-in-denmark-on-climate-issue/ http://www.operationfree.net/2009/12/16/legislator-reservist-to-report-in-denmark-on-climate-issue/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:35:30 +0000 Operation Free http://www.operationfree.net/?p=1279 AUGUSTA — Two events in Fallujah, Iraq, convinced Marine Sgt. Alex Cornell du Houx there’s a link between national security and climate change.

A farmer who couldn’t make money off his land turned to terrorism instead and tried to blow up Cornell du Houx’s vehicle.

“He had been given money to set an (explosive) in the road,” he said. “Unfortunately, extremists use vulnerable situations to recruit.”

In another instance, he saw long lines of people waiting for gasoline and diesel fuel.

“It struck me how crippled the country was because of its dependence on a single source of energy,” he said.

Cornell du Houx, who serves in the Maine House as a Democrat from Brunswick, is taking the message that climate change leads to instability to Copenhagen next week as part of a group of veterans called Operation Free.

They leave Sunday for Denmark to be part of the international conference on climate change. More than a dozen Mainers are planning to take part in the conference in various capacities.

While there, Cornell du Houx also plans to participate in a panel in which he will talk about what Maine has done to address global warming, through weatherization and reductions of carbon emissions.

A first-term legislator, Cornell du Houx serves on the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. He is a reservist in the Marine Corps.

The Truman National Security Project, based in Washington D.C., is paying for the trip.

Cornell du Houx said that while most people might not make the connection immediately between climate change and national security, once they understand, they want to take action.

Operation Free believes that countries suffering from droughts and floods become unstable and make good breeding grounds for terrorists, according to the Web site.

Also, countries such as the United States and other places that are so reliant on foreign oil or natural gas are vulnerable.

“Instinctively, people do get they don’t want to be dependent on a foreign state for something they need,” he said.

Susan Cover — 620-7015

scover@centralmaine.com

We’re currently on the road between Norton and Blacksburg, VA — and I’m finding it hard to believe that it’s the next-to-last day of the 2009 edition of the Veterans for American Power tour.

We’ve had quite a week in West Virginia and Virginia.  Things kicked off on Monday in Huntington, WV, where we had the honor of assisting members of a local VFW as they commemorated the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Afterward, we spent some time with the assembled World War II and Vietnam veterans to talk about the relationship between our current conflicts and our energy policies.  It was one of our Marines, Glenn Kunkel, who said it best:

“Back in those days, we were in a two-front war.  Everyone pitched in — people planted victory gardens, women wore their skirts shorter to conserve fabric for the war effort.  Once again, we are in a two-front war.  We’re not asking you to grow your own vegetables, or to change the way you dress, but we do need to develop more clean domestic energy.  Today’s victory gardens will be built out of windmills and solar panels.”

After leaving Huntington, we headed north; after a quick stop in Vienna (near Parkersburg), we ended up in Wheeling, where we held a roundtable with VFW members including a Marine veteran of Guadalcanal.  (A photo of Glenn with this Marine graced the front page of the Wheeling Intelligencer the next day.)

As we’ve gone through West Virginia, we’ve sensed a palpable feeling of frustration.  People know that we cannot afford to continue along the same energy path we’ve taken for so many years, but they are concerned about whether Washington is capable of making such a profound change.  At every stop, we have urged everyone to contact Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller to urge them to support the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act so that we start making this transition to clean energy sources.  This will be a gradual transition, but one that is absolutely essential to our security and economy in the years ahead.

Will it be easy?  Not necessarily.  Will we need to harness American ingenuity and entrepreneurship?   Of course.  But America has faced challenges before, and we’ve never backed down yet.  I wouldn’t bet against us.

Ohio’s contribution to carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels increased by 10 percent from 1990 to 2007, according to a report released by Environment Ohio.

“Too Much Pollution: State and National Trends in Global Warming Emissions from 1990-2007” ranked Ohio as 4th in the nation for contributing the highest levels of pollution tied to global warming, said Amanda Moore, field organizer for Environment Ohio.

Nationally, the rate of growth was even higher — 19 percent, with power plants and vehicles accounting for the largest sources.

The study relied upon the most recent state-by-state data from the U.S. Department of Energy on fossil fuel consumption. Environment Ohio places the majority of the blame on how Ohioans get their electricity. In 2007, almost 90 percent of the state’s electricity was generated by coal plants.

Nationally, Ohio ranks second, behind Texas, for having the highest amount of emissions from coal-fired electricity generation.

The citizen-based environmental advocacy group used the report’s release as one more reason to gain public support for Senate Bill 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, also known as the Kerry-Boxer bill. According to the Pew Center the bill’s goal is “to create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy.” The bill recently passed out of committee.

Recent surveys show public attitude is cooling on global warming, and with the enthusiasm of lawmakers to support legislation that would mandate a national transition to an economy that runs on renewable energy.

Environment Ohio also used the report’s release as an opportunity bring issues of national security and world poverty issues into the discussion of global warming. Retired Marine Sergeant Glenn Kunkel, an Akron native who represents Operation Free, said in a conference call that global climate changes will create additional challenges and responsibilities for the nation’s servicemen and women, who will be called upon to deal with the aftermath of devastation caused by climate-change. Starvation and political unrest in areas where agriculture is disrupted by climate change and human suffering resulting from an increase in severe weather are some of the scenarios he presented.

“The ripple effects are staggering, what it will cost,” he said.

Kunkel also pointed out that America’s dependence on foreign oil has, from a national security standpoint, the effect of putting dollars in the pockets of hostile nations that could harm America’s servicemen and women.

“The Kerry-Boxer bill is a small step forward, but it will pave the way to maintaining a more secure nation for us and keeping our servicemen and women out of harm’s way,” said Kunkel, who called the bill a “buffer” to help the nation make the transition away from fossil fuels.

Sister Paul Gonzalez, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, said in that same call that increased drought and disease will result around the globe if the United States does not make a major shift to how it powers its industries and homes. She said the world faces “catastrophic events” if we don’t switch from coal, oil and natural gas to wind, solar, bio-mass and other renewable energy sources.

Moore said that, closer to home, an Environment Ohio study showed that global warming will cost the state’s corn growers an additional $50 million annually due to the increase in pests and adverse weather resulting from climate change.

The report did not take into account the contribution of carbon dioxide from farming operations that rely heavily upon corn as a feedstock, Moore said. However, she said nationwide, 80 percent of the carbon dioxide added to the environment comes from burning fossil fuels.