Right off the bat, the Committee’s top Energy priority is to stop what they call “[Obama’s] global warming regulatory regime” by restricting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)  ability to regulate dangerous greenhouse gas (GHG) – the pollutants that are causing destabilizing climate change. EPA’s regulatory capacity presents one of the best mechanisms our country has for seriously addressing GHG, and thus, reducing the conflicts of the future.

According to the Department of Defense, climate change will accelerate global instability and the deterioration of weak and failing states. When millions of people get displaced, as seen recently in the floods in Pakistan, it creates instability and increases the potential for terrorist organizations to take advantage of that instability. The US military has and will continue to have more than it’s fair share of foreign crises they’re expected to handle. We shouldn’t add to our military’s burden by allowing domestic legislators to cripple the EPA’s attempt to mitigate these occurrences.

Furthermore, the EPA is simply stepping up where Congress failed. Congress, unfortunately, has not been able to produce any meaningful legislation aimed at mitigating climate change and its harmful consequences. It’s clear the Committee under Chairman Upton’s leadership is not serious about combating climate change and strengthening national security.

What’s more, the Committee fails to seriously address the threats our country’s addiction to oil poses. We send more than $1 billion a day overseas for oil, with much of that money going into the hands of countries who do not share our values. While domestic production is important, simply drilling out of this situation, as proposed in Committee agenda, is shortsighted and will just lead to more American dollars filling the coffers of overseas regimes. Our country needs to invest in efficiency measures and alternative fuels that will move us away from oil and all the economic and national security threats associated with it.

As my brother, an Afghanistan veteran, alluded to earlier this month in his blog piece, thirty-three retired Generals and Admirals told America that reducing our dependence on oil and reducing harmful GHG emissions is critical to our national security last March. We need to heed their advice. Evidently, Chairman Upton is not listening.

James Whitaker is the Southern Regional Field Director for the Truman National Security Project based in Washington, D.C.

It looks like the California EPA will soon consider how much carbon pollution automobiles may emit after 2020.  These standards will go a long way to determine what the federal standards will be – higher the better.

Climate change caused by carbon pollution, as we know, is a threat multiplier meaning it takes a bad situation and makes it worse.  We’ve seen remnants of this in Pakistan recently where flooding has caused increased instability in a region already plagued with hardship.  This increased hardship is a recruitment dream for terrorists and insurgents, not to mention greater instability of a nuclear state.  Attempting to mitigate these events through impactful pollution reduction seems a natural policy and a national security imperative.

Additionally, increasing emissions standards will help reduce our dependence on oil.  The national security threats of oil dependence is especially self-evident to the thousands of veterans who have served for the past decade, and they’ve been advocating through Operation Free to create the appropriate reforms that move us away from oil.  Making cars less polluting serves as one of those reforms.

We look to California to set the standard.  And we look to California Veterans to speak up and let their statesmen know how this is important for our national security.  We call on California Veterans to join Operation Free and join the more than 700 of their fellow vets nationwide in calling for the measures that makes our country more secure.

James Whitaker is the Southern Regional Field Director for the Truman National Security Project based in Washington, D.C.

The Veterans for American Power Tour reached the 25,000 mile mark today as it rolled into New Orleans for a press conference with local veteran and renewable energy company president, Troy Von Otnott.  The tour which has spanned over half of the nation and well over 100 events has been an incredible success for Operation Free – a coalition of national security and veterans organizations discussing the national security threats posed by oil and carbon pollution.  Robin Eckstein, an Iraq veteran who has been a part of the tour since its maiden voyage in October stated, “[the tour] has been one of the best things I have been a part of in a very long time”.  Few outside of the defense community knew about the national security implications of U.S. energy policy before Operation Free and the Veterans for American Power Tour came along, but their efforts have changed how Americans are thinking about fossil fuels and the carbon pollution that is causing destabilizing climate change.

New Orleans is the last stop in Louisiana, it went through Shreveport yesterday to meet with the Shreveport Times and the Mayor of Shreveport, but it is far from over.  The tour continues to roll on back North where it will host events in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia before it makes a 4 day stop in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Earth Day activities on the Capitol Mall and head down the Eastern Shore.  Will the tour hit 30,000 miles?  We’ll see…

25,000 plus miles – check.  Changing how Americans look at clean energy – check.

James Whitaker is the Southern Regional Field Director for the Truman National Security Project based in Washington, D.C.