We Need More Than a "Clean-Energy" Moonshots:

In his thoughtful and provocative, October 28, 2010 Rolling Stone article, The Case for Obama,  Tim Dickinson argues that Obama is our first "green" president.  While acknowledging his failure to obtain a comprehensive climate bill,  Dickinson praises Obama for launching the equivalent of a "clean-energy moonshot" via targeting $94 billion of stimulus money for clean energy development,  enough to "double the nation's renewable-energy generating capacity by 2012 - bringing enough clean energy online to power New York around the clock...." while doubling "... the nation's manufacturing capacity for wind turbines and solar panels, bringing down the cost of  clean energy so it can compete with fossil fuels - even if Congress doesn't pass a carbon cap."  Dickinson goes on to laud the president for various steps to aggressively reduce pollution, including getting old cars off the roads through the Cash for Clunkers program, increasing CO2 restrictions  on new vehicles, and (most likely) having the EPA "...set limits on carbon emissions for large industrial polluters..."


This is all well and good, but far more is needed.  The "moonshot" analogy is fine for raising eyebrows, but the stakes far higher when  dealing with climate change than they ever were for the space race.  This is not just a matter of bolstering U.S. prestige, gaining further military advantage and generating future economic spin-offs; this is about the future of an energy devouring planet.





The Obama administration's current efforts have to be squared against the arguments laid out by James Fallows in this December 2010  The Atlantic article,  Dirty Coal, Clean Future,  in which Fallows presents indisputable evidence for the world's (and especially China's and the United States')  reliance on coal for decades yet to come. So, what's a nation to do, especially given the  projected poor results  for power plant scrubbing techniques that will never really yield clean coal?  The most promising  possibility presented by Fallows,  one where  the Chinese are once again far ahead of Americans,  is underground gasification of coal.  Of course there will be problems with perfecting this technology, but the prospect  of tapping the nation's massive coal reserves, while leaving the worst of the pollutants below the surface is compelling and deserving of far more federal investment. 


 


And where can the funds be found? It is ridiculous to pursue the reductions in social programs that the incoming  congressional Republicans are touting.  Too many people - young, old and in-between - are desperately hurting due to the weak economy.  The most logical source of funding is our bloated military budget. Once again, I suggest that you visit the National Priorities Project website to explore the facts regarding the federal budget. In particular view their  Cost of War  calculator and their Tradeoffs tool  in order to get a stronger notion of the possibilities.


(Note: Clicking on the items appearing in blue will link you to the mentioned sites.)

Andrew Bacevich Wields the Painful Truth:

In his compelling book, The Limits of Power, Andrew Bacevich cuts to the chase, telling the painful truths that we in the United States do not want to hear. 

Bacevich argues that:
The chief desire of the American people , whether they admit it or not, is that nothing should disrupt their access to ... goods, ... oil, and ... credit.  The chief aim of the U.S. government is to satisfy that desire, which it does in part though the distribution of largesse at home and in part through the pursuit of imperial ambitions abroad (largely the business of the executive branch.)

From time to time, various public figures - even presidents- make the point that dependence may not be a good thing.  Yet meaningful action to reduce this condition is notable by its absence.  It's not difficult to see why.  The centers of authority within Washington - above all, the White House and the upper echelons of  the national security state - actually benefit from this dependency. It provides the source of  status, power, and prerogatives.  Imagine the impact just on the Pentagon  were this country actually to achieve anything approaching energy independence.  U.S. Central Command would go out of business.  Dozens of bases in and around the Middle East would close. The navy's Fifth Fleet would stand down.  Weapons contracts worth tens of billions would risk being canceled.So rather than addressing the problem of dependence, members of our political class seem hell-bent on exacerbating it....

As a nation, we must begin living within our means. We must strive vigorously for energy independence.  And we must stop our misguided military adventures launched to sustain an imperial dominion vastly beyond our reach.

You can see a 2008 interview of Bacevich, conducted by Bill Moyers, at:   http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08152008/watch.html

Having trouble staying on top of the different military reduction proposals?

There are so many different reports emerging on how the military budget might be reduced that it is difficult to sort them out.  Fortunately for us, Chris Hellman, of the National Priorities Project reviews  all of them for us.  Chris helped to write the Sustainable Defense Task Force report, which in my mind has the best  set of recommendations of all of the reports that are out there. You can check out Chris' Blogs at: http://nationalpriorities.org/en/blog/2010/11/16/all-hands-debt-entering-critical-debate-over-federal-deficit-reduction/



As I have written many times now,  a certain portion of whatever money is saved must be used to pay down the deficit, but a certain amount has to be reinvested in order to create new jobs (especially in sustainable technologies)  and support vital  social programs (such as urban education.)  To get a handle on   
some of the education options available, you should surf on over to Edutopia,  the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to what works in education.

Redirect Military Savings into Harvesting Energy From the Sun:

The Deficit Commission appointed by President Obama is recommending far more modest cuts in defense spending than the Sustainable Defense Task Force convened by Barney Frank, Ron Paul and others; 372 billion dollars in  5 years, rather than 960 billion in ten. Far more could be trimmed from either set of recommendations, still leaving the U.S. with massive military superiority over the other nations in the world. However, it will be a struggle simply to get the Deficit Commission's recommendations adopted by Congress.

NPR ran a half-hour Talk of the Nation segment recently on the Deficit Commission's recommendations.  The two discussants they brought in were both conservatives, but the conversation is worth listening to in order to hear what even conservatives are recommending given a military budget that has grown absurdly since 9/11/2001, so that nearly 1/2 of all federal discretionary spending is now directed to the military.  You can listen to or read the NPR segment at:
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/15/131334547/deficit-commission-calls-for-defense-budget-cuts?sc=emaf

Of course,  a substantial amount of whatever is taken out of the defense budget is going to have to go into deficit reduction, but a certain portion should be redirected into more projects like the solar thermal energy plant being built in the Mojave Desert by BrightSource Energy.  You can find out more about this promising effort, and link to a story about the accompanying environmental controversies, by going to http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2334  and reading Todd Woody's articles in Environment 360 

BrightSource

BrightSource Energy, which built this demonstration solar complex in Israel, is building a 400-megawatt solar power plant in Southern California.

The Election is Over : Now Let's Have a Bipartisan Effort to Invest in Smarter Cities

 So, the Republicans control the House, but the Democrats still have the White House and the Senate. For anything beneficial to happen there are going to have to be some bipartisan agreements.  Fortunately, everyone recognizes that there have to be reductions in the federal budget and everyone recognizes that we need to create new jobs.  There are only so many reasonable options available. The new Congress should start budget reduction efforts by taking a hard look at military spending. Furthermore, some savings need to be invested in smarter, greener approaches to modern living.

IBM has launched a website called The Smarter City which  provides a forum for sharing smart practices being used in urban centers around the world to improve: healthcare, energy use, transportation, education, economic development and public safety.  It's time to cut the bloat in the massive military budget. Rather than dedicating hundreds of billions to more efficient ways of killing, let's start investing in more effective ways of living.

Check out The Smarter City at: http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/thesmartercity/index.shtml?cm_mmc=agus_brsmartcity-20090929-usbrb111-_-s-_-genhpmerch-_-sp

The Link will lead you to this site:

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FLASH: Ann Arbor Michigan Quakers "See the Light"

Quakers around the country are organizing around the principles guiding this blog.  Please read on.....
Ann Arbor Friends Meeting Minute on Defense Spending
In collaboration with Lake Erie Yearly Meeting Peace Committee

Grounded in our Friends’ testimony on peace, we are deeply grieved by the futility of war as witnessed with the United States’ invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars ended the lives of thousands of U.S. service personnel and hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan residents. In addition, the wars created continued damage to the survivors and consumed an estimated $1 trillion of the U.S. treasury.

Support is now forming behind the recent “Sustainable Defense Task Force” report submitted to Congress by Barney Frank, House Financial Services Committee chairman, and a group from both sides of the aisle. It calls for a $960 billion decrease in U.S. defense spending over the next 10 years. Issued in June 2010, the report states: “Years of effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, 5,500 American fatalities, and $1 Trillion have not brought reliable peace or stability to either country.” It concludes that deep cuts are needed, not only in battlefield budgets but also in nuclear and conventional arms and in the size of the military footprint in terms of personnel, mission and infrastructure. These recommendations dovetail with the goals of FCNL’s “Nation’s Checkbook” campaign.

The Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, along with Lake Erie Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, commends the Congressional sponsors of this bold initiative. We ask that our members and attenders acquaint themselves with the “Sustainable Defense Task Force”report and the FCNL “Nation’s Checkbook” campaign that seek to reverse this country’s reliance on military solutions to complex world problems. Friends are urged to contact their members of Congress and ask them to support legislation implementing the Task Force recommendations.
Please check my August post (to your right)  for a link to the Sustainable Defense Task Force and other military budget issues.  Also, see below for more about the Friends Committee on National Legislation "Nations Checkbook" campaign.

Our Nation's Checkbook Campaign
	In Washington, a campaign organizer served Rep. Rick Larsen "Budget Pie." Organizers are working across the country to build support for budget committee hearings on how the federal budget could shift money from the Pentagon to diplomacy, green jobs, and human needs. In Michigan, more than 230 local elected officials, religious leaders, community groups, and individuals urge Sen. Debbie Stabenow to hold hearings. In Iowa, our organizer delivered this letter from nearly 100 organizations and individuals to Sen. Chuck Grassley himself. After a follow-up conference call, Sen. Grassley sent a letter to the chair of the committee asking for hearings. In Pennsylvania, community leaders have endorsed this letter to Rep. Allyson Schwartz, and organizers have met several times with the representative herself. Find out what's happening in your state.  (To reach the links highlighted above, go to:  http://www.fcnl.org/budget/checkbook/index.htm  )

If You Want to be an Energy Policy Geek, E&E is the Website for You:

Do you want to be up to date on all of the environmental issues that you spend so much time worrying about?  Well, you could spend most of your waking hours roaming around the materials provided, day in and day out, by Environment and Energy Publishing  (E&E).  The following overview of their Suite of Online Services is taken directly from their website, which you can access at: http://www.eenews.net/  

E&E's latest publication, ClimateWire, is designed to bring readers unmatched coverage of the debate over climate policy and its effects on business, the environment and society. Climate issues have become so pervasive, and our clients' interest in climate change has become so intense, that developing ClimateWire became an inevitable means to expand and enhance E&E's already top-tier coverage of this critical issue area.  

Designed for policy players who need to know what’s happening to their issues on Capitol Hill. From federal agency appropriations to comprehensive energy legislation, E&E Daily is the place insiders go to track their environmental and energy issues in Congress.  

Cutting-edge webcast program featuring in-depth interviews and analysis with compelling energy and environmental policy leaders. OnPoint is filmed and broadcast daily from E&E’s state-of-the-art studios on Capitol Hill. E&ETV’s broadcast quality sets the standard for Web-based video.  

The one-stop source for those who need to stay on top of all of today’s major environmental and energy action. With an average of more than 20 stories a day, Greenwire covers the complete spectrum, from electricity industry restructuring to Clean Air Act litigation to public lands management.  

A late afternoon roundup providing coverage of all the breaking and developing policy news from Capitol Hill, around the country and around the world. A must-read for the key players who need to be ahead of the next day’s headlines. 

For more than 20 years, Land Letter has been the publication professionals have turned to for objective, accurate coverage of natural resource policy issues. From lawsuits over national forest management, to water resource allocation in the West, Land Letter is the source all sides turn to for clear, timely, objective information. No other publication can match Land Letter's in-depth reporting on such a wide range of natural resource development and conservation issues.   

If (like me) you find yourself wondering about the integrity and quality of an initiative as expansive as this, you might be encouraged by the last paragraph of this 2008 Columbia Journalism Review article by Curtis Brainard.  He reports that  E&E's ventures serve not only policy geeks, but also the rest of us.  (The entire article is available at:

http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/ee_news_launches_climatewire.php  )  

The Observatory — April 01, 2008 09:59 AM
E&E News Launches ClimateWire
New pub aims to dig deep into “sprawling” topic
By Curtis Brainard
Though E&E’s editors have considered it, Braun (one of E&E's founders) said, “Our goal isn’t to write for a mass-market audience. We’re covering a lot of incremental stuff, it’s a lot of minutiae; it’s stuff that’s very important for people who are lobbying these issues and following these issues-the regulators and the legislators who are dealing with it; it’s really not very important or very interesting to the man on the street-some of the stuff we do is, but not the bulk of it.” Braun’s business model notwithstanding, ClimateWire and the rest of the E&E suite are an excellent source of environmental news that many general readers may find interesting, especially as struggling outlets in the mainstream media lose the tools to dig deeper into green issues.

Let Your Voice Be Heard on Military Spending Reductions:

The Friends Committee on National Legislation has put out an appeal for individuals to contact their Representatives and Senators regarding support of the reductions advocated by the Sustainable Defense Task Force. ( See:  www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf   ) Please read the folowing message , go to the FCNL website link  provided below and register your support.

 For the first time in decades, real cuts in Pentagon spending could be on the agenda.

A bipartisan group of representatives-Democrat Barney Frank (MA) and Republican Ron Paul (TX) -- has presented specific recommendations for cutting almost $1 trillion from the Pentagon's budget over the next ten years. 

Now Reps. Frank and Paul are asking their congressional colleagues to sign a letter calling on President Obama's deficit commission to put military spending on the table.  The letter will be open for signatures only a few weeks more. Please ask your representative and senators to sign it today.

Take action now - use the Friends Committee on National Legislation's website.
http://capwiz.com/fconl/utr/2/?a=15852531&i=21315686&c=

Everything that you wanted to know about the Cost of War, but were afraid to ask:

In case you haven't been there lately, or ever,  you really need to check out the Cost of War website at:

http://costofwar.com/      

Provided by the National Priorities Project  ( http://www.nationalpriorities.org/ ),

the website not only offers a running tally of the trillion plus dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, but also contains a list of social service and education trade-offs that have been neglected in the meantime.  For example, taxpayers in Hartford, Connecticut will pay $47.9 million for proposed Afghanistan war spending in FY2011. For the same amount of money, the following could be provided:

 

36,407 Households with Renewable Electricity-Wind Power for One Year

or

598 Elementary School Teachers for One Year

Stop the Lunacy

In its Pledge to America  (  http://pledge.gop.gov/ ) the Republican Party has revealed just how archaic its foreign policy will be if it regains control of  Congress. Most pertinent to this blog is the following section dealing with missile defense.

Fully Fund Missile Defense
There is real concern that while the threat from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles could materialize as early as 2015, the government’s missile defense policy is not projected to cover the U.S. homeland until 2020. We will work to ensure critical funding is restored to protect the U.S. homeland and our allies from missile threats from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.


 Give us a break.   While the bipartisan Sustainable Defense Task Force
(  http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf  ) is calling for missile reductions, the Republicans are again playing the Iran and North Korea fear cards and promising to spend more on outlandish missile contracts.  Instead of sinking additional funds into an already outrageous defense budget, we should be dramatically trimming military spending and investing some of the savings in programs such as Mark Hecker's  Reach Incorporated  which  improves reading skills, across ages, by hiring and training adolescents to tutor elementary school students in need of additional support.  It is time to reinvest in our people, not in more weapons of mass destruction.  Please visit the Reach website, and consider a donation,  at:

http://www.reachincorporated.org/about_us.html










            

Amending the Constitution to Support Sustainability

Several years ago,  I began lamenting the fact that the United States' Constitution doesn't charge the federal government with  stewardship of the natural environment.  But only recently, while reading John Ikerd's  Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense (Kumarian Press, 2005), did I come to realize how thoroughly this oversight - understandable in the 18th century, but intolerable in the 21st - perpetuates the  extractive and exploitive economic practices that are degrading the earth. 

It will be a long, tough slog, but some sort of sustainability amendment must get incorporated into the Constitution.  In Sustainable Capitalism (pp. 151-152), Ikerd offers a Bill of Rights for Sustainability.  In future posts I'll address his recommendations in detail.   For now, please consider obtaining  Ikerd's 
book (available at Amazon and other online booksellers).  You can also check out a synopsis of his ideas at the following link:

http://web.missouri.edu/~ikerdj/papers/Korea%20-%20Sustainable%20Capitalism.htm

American Friends Service Committee is Drumming up Support for the Sustainable Defense Budget

I was cheered today to receive an email from Paul Lems and Mary Zerkel of the American Friends Service Committee requesting support for Barney Frank's and Ron Paul's effort to cut nearly a trillion dollars from the defense budget by 2020.  You can link to the AFSC's website page about this initiative at:

http://support.afsc.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=10681.0&dlv_id=13521 

Mural panel on the cost of war by Jessica Munguia, part of AFSC's upcoming Windows & Mirrors exhibit.

Redirecting Military Spending Towards Urban Education

As I have previously written, the report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force   (See:   www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf  )
clearly pinpoints  billions of dollars thatcan be trimmed from the U.S. defense budget without sacrificing national security.   We need to develop the political will to make these cuts.  We also need to identify priority areas for reinvesting these savings. Green technology is one such area.  Urban education is another.  The drain on our society from our inability to provide high quality education for inner city youth is so well documented that it need not be further described here.  What I intend to do over the coming years is direct readers to model programs worthy of substantial tax dollar support.


One such program is the Academy for College Excellence developed by Diego Navarro at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California. A graduate of Harvard School of Business and a stickler for data-based evaluation, Navarro has created (and is now in the process of replicating) a program that lights a fire and stimulates success among community college students seemingly doomed to failure by all prior indicators.


The Academy for College excellence has an excellent website, which you can reach by clicking:
http://academyforcollegeexcellence.org/    
Please check it out to get a rich understanding of this remarkable program.  Also, if you wish, you can donate to the Academy now.


Donn

Reinvesting Military Savings

          Defense spending feeds our largest government funded jobs program, the armed forces and  its supplier industries.  As military costs are reduced, it will be important  to invest in areas that will stimulate the U.S. economy while enhancing environmental sustainability and increasing our social capital. Alex Salkever's article in  Environment 360, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies'
exceptional online magazine (  http://e360.yale.edu/  ), explains how government incentives are being used to support small wind power. This is a model for the type of innovation that we need on a large scale.  The direct link to the article is: 
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/with_a_boost_from_innovation_small_wind_is_powering_ahead/2294/

Please check it out.

Donn

Welcome to Transform the Military Budget

Welcome to my new blog which is dedicated to exploring ways in which the United States' defense budget can be reduced, without sacrificing national security,  and funds be redirected to important challenges facing the nation.   In particular, I will be sharing information about increasing  investments in sustainability technologies and in urban education.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

The following are links to articles about creative ways to decrease military spending:


The Atlantic Monthly  : "Cut the Military Budget"

This article by Joshua Green contains a link to the report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force, a bipartisan group called together by (among others)  Barney Frank and Ron Paul.  Its recommendations call for 960 billion dollars of defense spending by 2020.  If implemented, these cuts would still leave the United States with a massive military advantage over all nations in the world.   A link to a summary of the Task Force's report is listed immediately below.

The Sustainable Defense Task Force

Plan to Cut $150,000,000,000

This blog provides an alternative view of cuts to the budget that might be implemented.

Real Military Budget - War Resisters League

The War Resisters league provides an overview of all the funds that are being spent on military costs, both past and present.

Donn Weinholtz