The national security message was well understood by all as was the benefits of national energy reform legislation to the jobs sector.

In all, I believe Michigan residents are ready for and will overwhelmingly support renewable energy reform based on our conversations thus far. On to Traverse City!

Senator Risser and Representative Hilgenberg both expressed their thanks to Operation Free for bringing attention to the issue of green energy and said that they had come to learn and listen to views and information that they could use in their own push for comprehensive clean energy reform in the state of Wisconsin, the culmination of which may come soon in a bill coming up for vote in the state legislature.  Sen. Risser also spoke to the fact that Wisconsin currently imports 100% of its energy from outside of the state and that Wisconsin and states like it have much to gain from energy independence.

The questions raised by the audience ranged from veteran involvement in new green energy jobs to the astronomical cost of fueling the fight against terrorism and what the U.S. military itself is currently doing to develop new energy sources and reduce its use of oil. We really enjoyed our time in Wisconsin, now we’re off to Indiana!

Demand that your Senator take action! Click to be connected directly to their office by phone
Today Americans all over the country, from dozens of organizations, are picking up the phone to demand that the Senate pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. The Senate has this chance to put us on the path to energy independence and national security.

Be connected directly to your Senator’s office and demand action TODAY.
America’s military leaders and veterans have seen the impact of our addiction to oil firsthand and understand how important action is. It’s time to heed their warning.
Tell the Senate to stop sending billions overseas to our enemies and invest in clean, American power. We can’t wait any longer. The security of our nation depends on it.

Make the call today – click to be connected to your Senator’s office!

The EPA says it is going forward with “common sense measures that are helping to protect Americans from this threat” and said its critics are trying to “stall progress.”

The Environmental Protection Agency, responding complaints about its December findings about the threat of greenhouse gases, issued a statement Friday saying that the “science is settled” and “greenhouse gases pose a real threat to the American people.”

The statement comes after after Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a petition with the EPA and a challenge in federal appeals court over the EPA’s conclusions.

With climate scientists in the hot seat recently over an e-mail scandal and mistakes in a prominent U.N. report, Cuccinelli argues the EPA should “restart the process and this time use rigorous, defensible science.”

He says the EPA is expected to announces measures to cap carbon emissions, based on its climate change findings, and that will put a “staggering burden” on Virginia residents and businesses.

The EPA says it is going forward with “common sense measures that are helping to protect Americans from this threat” and said its critics are trying to “stall progress.”

Some who support the EPA’s efforts to enact carbon caps on vehicle emissions say Cuccinelli is just playing politics.

“It’s very clear this is coming from lawyers, not scientists, and there’s really no new science that needs to be resolved,” said Brendan Bell, Washington representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a leading nonprofit environmental group.

But the science that climatologists have been using has come under fire. Recently, some parts of the 2007 United Nations Panel Report on Climate Change were found to contain mistakes, including a claim that the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035.

And one of the lead scientists in the Climate-gate scandal last year, Phil Jones, acknowledged that there has been no statistically significant global warming since 1995. But he also claims most of the climate warning since 1950 is “due to human activity.”

Source: http://bit.ly/d1lYDJ

Check it out

I was with Jon and other veterans from across the country at the Clean Energy, Jobs, and Security Forum on Wednesday where we joined with leaders from the national security, agriculture, business, labor, and faith communities to discuss the need for legislation that will create a market solution to the problem of carbon pollution and reduce our dependence on oil from people who don’t like us.

As Jon wrote in his piece, we heard from top administration officials like Steven Chu and Carol Browner, as well as key Senators in the effort such as John Kerry, Debbie Stabenow, and Sherrod Brown.

But perhaps the greatest ovation came for Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has been unabashed in his support for strong clean energy legislation (and has come under fire from some in his party for doing so).

In pointed terms, Senator Graham spoke about how Senators from both parties need to come together on this issue.  He proudly proclaimed that “as a Republican, I believe clean air is a good thing.”  And he urged the audience to loudly express their support of clean energy legislation to their elected representatives in Washington.

Later that evening, President Obama echoed Senator Graham’s consensus-building tone in his first State of the Union address.

Clearly, there is a great deal of work to be done on this issue.  But if Pres. Obama and Sen. Graham’s comments last week on clean energy are any indication, there may still be a glimmer of bipartisanship in Washington.  And that spirit of bipartisanship may just get clean energy legislation across the finish line.

CONTACT
David Solimini, 757-876-0295

Veterans Launch National Tour for Clean Energy, Security

Tour to hit 16 states, highlight climate change threat to American security

Today, in front of the US Capitol, a group of US military veterans kicked off the National Veterans for American Power Tour, a 16 state, two month, nationwide bus tour in support of clean energy legislation. Sponsored by Operation Free, the tour will highlight the connection between climate change and national security.

They were joined by Rep.  Edward Markey (D-Mass), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

At scores of meet and greets, town hall meetings, and round table events, the veterans will describe how dependence on oil is funding our most dangerous enemies, making America vulnerable, and causing destabilizing climate change – threatening peace and security around the world.

The national tour heads to Virginia first, followed by Missouri, Colorado, and New Mexico and additional states thereafter. This tour was preceded by two smaller bus tours last year.

“As we saw on Christmas day, our dependence on oil is providing funding to our most dangerous enemies. At the same time, climate change is destabilizing already weak states and creating the failed states which provide breeding grounds and recruiting opportunities for terrorists around the world,” said Jon Powers, COO of the Truman Project and Iraq war veteran. “Climate change is making the world a more dangerous place, and America needs to stop it for our own security.”

The next month will include stops in:

• Virginia (Jan 16 & 17) Charlottesville, Martinsville, Danville
• Missouri (Jan 19-22) St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Columbia, Sedalia, Warrensburg, Independence, Kansas City
• Colorado (Jan 24-28) Grand Junction, Breckenridge, Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo
• New Mexico (Jan 29-Feb 2) Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Roswell
• Arizona (Feb 5) Flagstaff
• Nevada (Feb 6-7) Las Vegas.

The Tour will continue onto the following states: Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio.

Relevant Facts:

• The Department of Defense has identified climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’ and plans on including the threat in the Quadrennial Defense Review, as does the State Department.  (New York Times, August 8, 2009)

• 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.

Operation Free is a coalition of veterans and national security organizations dedicated to securing America with clean energy. Learn more about Operation Free and the National Veterans for American Power Tour at www.OperationFree.net.

# # #

The veterans will describe how dependence on oil is funding our most dangerous enemies, making America vulnerable, and causing destabilizing climate change. After the event, they will depart for the first leg of the national tour.

Can you make it? Of course you can. Come to the kickoff, see the brand new bus, and learn more about how to get involved.

The Details: Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. in Washington, DC at the US Capitol Reflecting Pool at the corner of Maryland and 3rd St SW.

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.

“Some may wonder why NATO would be interested in climate change. To me, this is a bit like asking why a person would be interested in a change in gravity.”

What he is saying, is that the threat climate disruption poses to global security could not be more pressing or clear. In fact, he goes further, saying:

“NATO may be called upon to address the consequences of climate change directly. The military is often the ‘first responder’ to natural disasters. We saw this in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and floods that more recently struck Eastern Europe.”

This will have very real security implications for the US military – by far the greatest contributor to NATO forces – at a time when resources are already stretched thin by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet perhaps the most powerful imperative for action is this:

“Climate change presents security challenges of a magnitude and a complexity we have never seen before.”

That the most successful defensive security alliance of all time, views climate disruption as its biggest threat and greatest challenge – bigger than terrorism, bigger than nuclear war, bigger than any other challenge they have yet faced – says it all.

Sun Tzu, writing thousands of years ago said, “a good general knows the outcome of the battle before it begins.” Our generals know how fighting the planet will turn out, and are trying to tell us it is not a battle we want to have.

Every single person in the world is affected by our climate. The manner in which we live our daily lives is at the very mercy of our climate system.  The supporting points of this idea are far and wide, from sustenance and other basic needs to the vacation spot you may want to visit being eradicated by the next big hurricane.  In our lack of foresight in this premise, we have come upon its dangerous and imposing presence far earlier than anticipated.

Today, we are in the Bella Center in Copenhagen Denmark. Operation Free is in the very epicenter of every voiced concern on our planet. 192 nations have sent delegations and over 900 Non governmental agencies have converged at COP 15 to not only discuss our current predicament, but to take the necessary steps to improve our energy efficiency and reduce the poisonous carbon footprint that exponentially exacerbates the problem our planet now faces.

We are a small group of Americans, concerned with global security and safety for future generations. We believe, as history has taught us, that we are precariously vulnerable as a global society, as well as a nation to the negative effects climate change will bring about. Famine, droughts, disease, mass migrations, displaced cultures, the list reads like an award winning apocalypse recipe. We recognize the human cost, tangible and intangible, and as every one who has carried a rifle to procure freedom does, we look to prevent it in the future. When a people has been so adversely affected by climate change, their desperation must be answered by those who have the resources, training and preparation for such crises. Should those elements of necessity be unable to effectively respond, the repercussions would be disastrous.

It is these contingencies that Operation Free has brought to Copenhagen. We understand the nature of the reluctant terrorists that only wanted jobs, of the desperate father who could no longer let his child go hungry. We understand that it is up to us to do everything in our power as a species to keep each other from knowing such circumstances in the future. It is this idea, this hope, this message that we bring to Copenhagen, so that future generations prosper in the safety and comfort of a clean and secure planet.

The UN Climate Conference is in its final week, and the streets of Copenhagen are packed with government officials, scientists, engineers and non-profit leaders. Operation Free joined their ranks yesterday, when a dozen combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan touched down to spread a crucial message: the stability of our climate and the security of our globalized world are inextricably linked. As veterans, we’ve learned the hard way that the drought, famine and scarcity climate change will bring produces a breeding ground for insurgency and terrorism. More than glaciers and polar bears are at risk – preventing climate change is a struggle for the security and prosperity of every human being on the planet.

Even with the vast array of organizations and agendas present at the conference, our message is catching on. Waiting to enter the convention hall this morning, I talked with botanists and engineers with a plan to restore trees to the Sahara desert, delegates representing a series of small islands existentially threatened by rising sea levels, and a vegan activist in a chicken suit. When I mentioned that I was an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran here to discuss the link between climate change and global security, even the chicken stood up and took notice.

Each of them understood that while Operation Free is a coalition of American veterans, the security threat posed by climate change is equally real for nations around the globe. The scientific consensus is overwhelming. If we continue to burn dirty fuels at our current rate, increasing carbon levels in the atmosphere will cause significant shifts in the earth’s climate. According to analysis by the Pentagon and the CIA, the resulting drought, famine and flooding will lead to a dramatic increase in global conflict.

As veterans of a global fight against insurgency and terrorism, we’ve seen the link between scarce resources and violence at eye level. In Afghanistan, my small Forward Operating Base took rocket fire on a weekly basis. As we struggled to defend ourselves, we gradually realized that our attackers weren’t hardened insurgents – they were local tribesmen who had lost their livelihoods to deforestation and drought. Knowing that the local people were struggling to feed their families, the Taliban was quick to move in. They offered these former farmers and loggers a simple deal: ten dollars for every rocket they fired at the American camp.

Unless we take immediate action to prevent climate change, the same deadly dynamic will become a global fact of life. This week in Copenhagen, Operation Free is committed to helping secure the future.

Early this morning, as my fellow veterans and I braved the Scandinavian winter to attend the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, I felt a camaraderie that reminded me of my days serving in the military. Just as in my Army career, I am honored to stand alongside dedicated men and women who are committed to bringing stability and security to disaffected populations. While the Copenhagen conference is bristling with thousands of people – from scientists and clean energy advocates to policy experts and world leaders – the veterans working with Operation Free are adding a much-needed voice to the discussions about climate disruption. Although everyone here is concerned about the potentially disastrous effects to the Earth that are resulting from our increasing carbon emissions, most conference attendees are not aware of the equally adverse impacts of a changing climate on international security.

As I speak with conference participants and media outlets covering the events here in Copenhagen, the first question I’m asked is “why are international military forces concerned about climate change?” Of course, most of the attendees here are not military experts, but they do understand the following logic: First, there is near-universal agreement in the scientific community that our growing reliance on fossil fuels contributes to an increasing amount of carbon emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere. As more nations join the global economy and develop their own industries, the world is adding carbon emissions to the environment at a pace unparalleled in world history. These emissions – and the increased pollution that jeopardizes our air and water – are also responsible for some of the climate change we are already seeing around the world. Our reliance on dirty fossil fuels – if left unchecked – will increase the rate of global climate disruption and usher in more instability in some of the most impoverished nations in the world. The resulting volatility will threaten not only the immediate population, but also those international aid organizations that will be called upon to provide humanitarian assistance. As history has shown, far too frequently these same humanitarian operations often require a peacekeeping force or military response as well, as regional warlords battle for control of scarce resources.

As a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, one of my most vivid memories is of visiting a refugee camp – a place so deprived of basic necessities that residents often fought over access to resources like food and water. This is one of the reasons that veterans from Operation Free add a valuable voice to the topic of climate disruption: we’ve seen first hand how scarce resources lead to destabilized populations. With the potential for droughts in some areas and flooding in other areas, we know that the fallout will include increased famine, disease, and mass migrations. Just as I witnessed during my deployment to Afghanistan, areas with few resources and unstable populations are fertile recruiting grounds for terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. As we have witnessed in the past decade, these groups will stop at nothing to advance their extremist ideologies, and unstable and impoverished regions provide a safe-haven for terrorist groups to enlist and train new members. The United States Department of Defense, State Department, and Central Intelligence Agency are also greatly concerned the undesirable conditions caused by climate change, and they have developed task forces to examine the problem and develop strategies to provide diplomatic, and if necessary, a military response.

The global instability that will be caused by climate change is a serious threat, but thankfully we have the power to prevent these conditions if we act now and focus on utilizing cleaner energy sources. In both Afghanistan and around the world, military forces from many nations are working together to combat tyranny and oppression. Let’s hope our national leaders are willing to do the same.

All of the veterans will be available for media interviews before the conference as well as at the Bella Center during the conference by domestic and international media. Call David Solimini at 757-876-0295 to interview. Email dave@trumanproject.org after December 13.

Hailing from ten different states and three branches of the military, they will hold press events, meet with members of the US delegation, and relay their experiences as members of the US military to an international audience. The veterans will highlight that:

• Global action is necessary for global security because climate change makes the world a more dangerous place. In the parlance of the military, it is a threat multiplier, helping create safe havens and breeding grounds for terrorists when unstable countries collapse under the weight of the droughts, famines, and floods caused by climate change.  Preventing climate change means protecting us and our allies from having to fight future conflicts.

• The world needs a united front in the face of this common threat. It is time for real teamwork, where every nation can be part of a win-win solution for everyone. America needs to set the right example, look to the future, and lead by example in the face of this global security threat.

• Depending on one or two sources of energy makes a nation vulnerable. Veterans know that it is dangerous to depend on unfriendly nations for the resources we need to run the economy. This is true of America, and of other nations. For example, in America, oil is a worry. In Europe, it is common to worry about natural gas supplies.  It’s time for all nations to take control of our energy future.

The veterans hail from the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The delegation is sponsored by Operation Free, a coalition of veterans and national security organizations a mission to secure America with clean energy. More information at www.operationfree.net.

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.