The Burden of Picking an Energy Loser
September 10, 2012 By Tina Casey Leave a Comment
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U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) issued an odd tweet about U.S. energy policy last month:
@RepMikePompeo
Picking winners and losers in the energy sector is not the government’s job. @MittRomney agrees: bit.ly/Nmml16
Odd, because the Republican brand has always gone hand in glove with national defense, which is indisputably the government’s job. A critical part of that job involves the ability to get the best military equipment and the best fuel on which to run it, which is what we’d call picking energy winners. As for the consequences of picking losers, a new documentary called The Burden lays it all out in stark, chilling terms.
The Burden film about military oil dependency
National Defense and Oil Dependency
The Burden is produced by the documentary filmmaker Roger Sorkin, who is a fellow at the national security advocacy organization The Truman Project. If you’ve heard of the veterans’ clean energy coalition Operation Free, that’s an initiative of The Truman Project.
The strength of The Burden is its use of active-duty military officials as well as retired military personnel to tell the story of why — in the context of modern warfare, emerging new technologies, and alternative sources of energy — oil has become an energy loser.
In terms of national security, oil dependency has become a logistical and operational burden, while directly resulting in significant numbers of U.S. military personnel killed or wounded in operations related to fuel convoys.
Among those featured in the film are Gen. James Amos, USMC, Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps; Col. Bob Charette, USMC, Director, Expeditionary Energy Office (familiar to CleanTechnica readers from this); Vice Adm. Phil Cullom, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations; Jon Gensler, former Army captain in Iraq and solar industry professional; Cdr. Blake McBride, USN, Deputy Director, Task Force Climate Change; and Gen. Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), Fmr. Commander, U.S. Central Command.
Along with individual casualties directly attributed to oil dependency, The Burden also underscores the broad impact on servicemen and women in terms of America’s obligations to protect overseas oil supplies and transportation routes in unstable regions, and the impact of global warming on national security.
The Oil Burden on U.S. Communities
CleanTechnica had a conversation with former Army captain Jon Gensler* last month, and he added some personal background about the consequences of military oil dependency.
Jon, who is now a project manager at Borrego Solar Systems, grew up in West Virginia. From his point of view, the impact of oil dependency ripples out from the needless deaths of individual troops to affect the well being of entire communities, possibly for generations.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Truman National Security Project or Educational Institute.
