The following op-ed is from
Krystal Ball, Democratic candidate for Congress in Virginia's 1st Congressional District (currently mis-represented by the worthless Rob Wittman). It's great to see a political candidate who totally "gets" the concept that climate change is not "just" an environmental issue, but also a crucial economic and national security matter. As Krystal Ball writes, with regard to our dependency on fossils, "the patriotic thing to do and the environmental thing to do are the same." I also love the way she frames the Copenhagen Summit as "the jobs summit" and says that the United States should "take the lead" there. Finally, kudos to Krystal for taking on the "global warming skeptics." It's quite a contrast to Rob Wittman, who
touts himself as "an environmental scientist by trade," yet who voted "no" on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 along with know-nothings like Eric Cantor and John Boehner. For this and for many other reasons, it's most definitely time for a change in the 1st CD.
I was born and raised in an area of Virginia surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay. The bay is a priceless treasure and the largest estuary in the United States. It is second only to New Orleans in its vulnerability to climate-change induced flooding. I believe that man-made climate change is a scientific fact and confronting the reality of greenhouse gas emissions a critical moral and environmental imperative. Our failure to rise to this challenge would be a betrayal of our children and future generations. Right now, the world's attention is focused on the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. My attention is also focused on Copenhagen. But not because I am an environmentalist; rather it is my patriotism, my experience as a small business owner and my study of economics that focus me on Copenhagen.
Eliminating our dependence on imported oil is a national security imperative. Our consumption of foreign oil bought from petro-dictators is the financial engine of worldwide terrorism. When I think about our men and women in uniform killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by improvised explosive devices and road-side bombs, as I marvel at their heroism, I can't help but think about where the money came from to buy the explosives and the nails and ball bearings launched at them by jihadi cowards. Our purchase of foreign oil funds the regimes who fund the terrorists. It's as simple as that. It doesn't matter whether you want to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels because of global warming or because you want to cut off funds to the terrorists...the patriotic thing to do and the environmental thing to do are the same. The US has 3% of the world's proven oil reserves. Osama Bin Laden's birthplace of Saudi Arabia has 25%. "Drill baby drill" may be the Saudi energy strategy, but it is no strategy for the US.
Cutting out our reliance on fossil fuels isn't just about national security, it's also about jobs. That's why I think about the Copenhagen Summit as the jobs summit. Our car companies went bankrupt because we ignored world-wide demand for more fuel efficient cars and focused on higher short-term profits from SUVs and trucks. China leads the world in manufacturing, not just in the manufacture of the household goods that used to be made in America, but in solar power production and electric vehicle production. Our universities, our scientists, our venture capitalists are the best in the world by far. We have the largest consumer market in the world and are the world's largest consumers of energy. The US is the natural choice to lead the world in energy-efficient, green technology and alternative and renewable energy. India, China, Japan and Europe are all aggressively promoting green technology as part of their economic growth strategy.
We work longer hours and have more productive workers than India or China. We are the best positioned in the world to lead in green technology and if we invest in that leadership, the entire world will buy green technology produced in America by American workers.
In the US, a fierce political debate rages about whether climate change is real. In the rest of the world, there is no such debate. The rest of the world accepts the reality of climate change and they are gearing up industry, research investment and regulation to make their economies more energy efficient, less reliant on fossil fuels, to turn their buildings green, to develop electric cars and affordable solar power in order to confront the reality of climate change. Those focused on events in Copenhagen are derided by "global warming skeptics" as tree-hugging internationalists who care more about world opinion than the economic reality of job creation in the United States. They deride climate change legislation as "Cap and Tax" and sound alarm bells about the economic consequences of higher energy costs that come with controlling greenhouse gas emissions. I say, for the cleanliness of our air, the purity of our water, the diversity of our wildlife, the national security of our homeland and the job creation of the 21st century, we need to heed the warning of Copenhagen and take the lead in the world-wide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. And in the process, if we just happen to avoid a civilization ending climatic catastrophe, we can call that a bonus.
