Coal Front Group Hijacks Veterans, Dishonors Veterans' Day

by: Richard Allen Smith

Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 15:56:30 PM EST


Today, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal industry front group sent a message to their e-mail list that, under the guise of honoring Veterans' Day, that hijacks the efforts of Veterans working against climate change and advocating a transition to clean energy:

Greetings!

With Veterans Day around the corner, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the military personnel who are involved in ensuring our country is protected.

Energy security is one issue that has become increasingly important to our veterans. In fact, national veterans groups Votevets and Operation Free are urging the government to become more energy independent and less reliant on foreign oil.

We can do this by using the abundant domestic fuels we already have. With more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the United States has more coal than the Middle East has oil.

We need to start putting our coal to use - and technologies such as hybrid-electric cars and cleaner, more efficient power plants are making it easier for us to do that.

How do you feel about the issue? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.  

As always, thank you for your continued support. We hope to hear from you!

Cheers,

The ACCCE Team

ACCCE got one thing right. Veterans do have a unique perspective to offer on national security as it relates to climate change and clean energy. Producers of non-renewable energy are lobbying against clean energy legislation and are implying that we're campaigning for their energy plan. The fact that they are attempting to hitch on to our wagon (albeit falsely) shows the level of credibility we have in this debate.  ACCCE, a coalition of carbon polluters, understands that the work their members do is part of the problem.

VoteVets and Operation FREE are not, have not and will never advocate the continued use of carbon based fuels. Such an action would be completely counter to the work we do, as so called "clean  coal" only pushes us closer to inevitable catastrophic climate change and threatens our national security. For the ACCCE to hijack America's Veterans who are working to ensure secure, clean American energy alternatives while simultaneously claiming to honor us on Veterans Day is an act of despicable hubris.
Richard Allen Smith :: Coal Front Group Hijacks Veterans, Dishonors Veterans' Day
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Coal Front Group Hijacks Veterans, Dishonors Veterans' Day | 8 comments
Wait a minute (0.00 / 0)
I thought the whole point of this debate was to get us out of bed with the Saudis, so we can actually do something about them.

If we have coal, we should damn sure be using it right about now, just as we should be engaged in domestic drilling and engaged in searching for alternative energy sources.

Bottom line. Climate change is debatable. The Saudis worldwide malevolent influence is not. I'm not taking a stand one way or the other on climate change, but getting off Saudi oil takes priority.

The problem is (0.00 / 0)
that fossil fuels are priced on the world market, not domestically. Therefore, any use of fossil fuels is still influenced by foreign powers.

I'm on twitter.
[ Parent ]
Yeah but (0.00 / 0)
were we not so dependent on Saudi oil, we wouldn't have to keep them around anymore. Regime change, wrecking their oil, etc. would all be on the table. In fact, should the Saudis go down, whom is tio say what would be left of OPEC.

Of course there will still be some influence from foreign powers, but given the globalized economy, I don't see any getting away from that anytime soon. But at the same end, we need to get away from foreign powers whom are actively hostile to us. The Saudis fit that bill perfectly. Russians not so much.  


[ Parent ]
Cllimate Change is only debatable because the $$$ want to keep (0.00 / 0)
the status quo and profits coming in. "Clean Coal" is just an ad campaign to that end.

National Security goes well beyond Saudi oil.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TE...

Maldives threatened by melting of polar ice caps
http://news.aol.com/article/ma...

Venezuela rations water
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/a...

India's water wars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl...

TVA fly ash spill that contained high levels of arsenic in Tennessee caused by "creep failure".


[ Parent ]
Well getting off of Saudi Oil should come first (0.00 / 0)
If we utilize all of our energy resources, we could probably deal with the Saudi problem and eventually shift to carbon free energy.

Or we could dump the Saudis and make the Russians our new oil partners. The Russians are nowhere the actual threat to our national security that the Saudis are and they could be a potential ally against China too.

Either way, getting off Saudi oil should be the number 1 priority.
After all, how many countries can say that they attacked the United States homeland and got away with it?

[ Parent ]
Why getting off Saudi Oil is only part of the equation..... (0.00 / 0)
Our security is threatened by instability. One of the biggest things that will cause instability in the world is the unstable climate. Droughts some places, constant flooding in others. We know that when resources are scarce, wars commence. Burning fossil fuels contributes to the overall scarcity of resources, food, land, as well as energy. Therefore it behooves us to work to get off all fossil fuels as soon as we can. Let's lead the way and do it before it becomes a crisis breaking point. The U.S. auto industry waited until the gas crisis to finally start thinking about alternative energy and it put us 10 years behind the Japanese. America leads. Period. We don't wait until a crisis to the smart thing. We do it before the crisis hits.  
[ Parent ]
I don't know, (0.00 / 0)
being in bed with Imperial fascists out to Islamicize the world is pretty bad in my book. Kind of hard for us to lead when we're brownnosing a bunch of sleazy, medieval gangsters.

Besides, we can get off Saudi oil before we can get off all fossil fuels. We should do it.  

[ Parent ]
We are the United States of America Fred.... (0.00 / 0)
We can do both! One may be easier, but that doesn't mean we quit working on the other.
[ Parent ]
Coal Front Group Hijacks Veterans, Dishonors Veterans' Day | 8 comments
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