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OPINIONS
Jon Gensler: Clean coal technologies can keep nation, military secure
On Dec. 4, 2007, I stood among a crowd of other uniformed U.S. Army officers and watched as my fellow West Virginian and West Point classmate Capt. Ben Tiffner was lowered into the ground at Arlington National Cemetery. He was killed in action on Nov. 7, 2007, in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack on his Humvee.
As my friends and I left the cemetery to go and remember Ben's life and career, the lines of other burials, waiting patiently behind us, stand out in my memory. If you haven't seen one of our national cemeteries, you need to. The endless rows of white headstones open up into a new, constantly growing section which is devoted to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in today's War on Terror.
Remembering my own time in Iraq leading an infantry mortar platoon and the dangers we struggled through, I know our military fights a hard, long war. And due to our addiction to cheap fossil fuels, the long war is going to grow longer. This is why I choose to fight a better fight here at home -- for cheap, clean energy independence. Our national security depends on it. The lives of soldiers such as Ben depend on it. For this reason we, the people of West Virginia, need the U.S. Congress to pass strong energy and national security legislation this fall.
Certainly, I know the economy of West Virginia has been built on coal and that many people dispute the truthfulness behind the science of climate change. I am not claiming to be a climate scientist (though I have studied a bit of the science myself). What I tell you here is from my own experience.
On the battlefield, a soldier does not have the luxury of waiting for 100 percent certainty before acting. If one does then the result is not favorable, and soldiers die unnecessarily.
Here in America we have a similar situation: the world's top scientific minds agreeing with 95 percent certainty that climate change is going to drastically alter the way we live, and that much of climate change is man-made. I would bet on this any day of the week, especially when my soldiers' lives are on the line.
Which takes me back to my main point. Assume dry parts of the world dry up even more, and wars over precious drinking water become even more prevalent. Slight sea level increases force the coastal populations of the world's poorest regions to flee as climate refugees. Instability opens up more holes for extremists who are preaching anti-American terror to step in and take control.
Who is going to have to respond to these threats? China? India? No! We will: the American fighting men and women. It is the American soldier who will bear the brunt of inaction. And that will cost us dearly.
We can make an investment in our future today and reap the benefits for decades to come, or we can choose to do nothing and be confident that other brave West Virginians such as Ben Tiffner will be buried into our most hallowed of grounds, all because we could not summon the courage to act when needed.
But there is good news. On Sept. 30, 2009, the U.S. Senate was to begin the lengthy consideration of a bill which can and will offer just the added incentives we will need to avert the worst of climate change.
Such a bill will not knock out the coal industry overnight (nor is it intended to) but rather will spur innovation that may make coal technology cleaner as well as bring better quality jobs to West Virginia. But just as importantly, it is going to keep our fighting men and women safer and our great nation more secure.
Jon Gensler is a graduate of Huntington East High School and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He is currently studying for dual master's degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
