Aspen – The absence of snow on the Maroon Bells caught U.S. Rep. Jane Harman’s eye Wednesday.
“That’s the first time in three decades of coming here that I’ve seen that,” said Harman, D-Calif. “How about the unrelenting 90-degree weather outside? Whether you think man and woman did this or it occurred naturally, it is here.”
Harman brought up climate change Wednesday in a discussion about the national-security consequences of the country’s dependence on oil at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival, hosted by the Aspen Institute.
Rising sea levels threaten U.S. coastlines, spreading drought is projected to increase homelessness, and U.S. foreign policies have led to the loss of American lives in the oil-rich and war-torn Middle East, she said.
Former Sen. Gary Hart described the country’s energy policy in dire terms.
“It is the policy of the United States of America to continue to depend on foreign supplies of oil for upwards of two-thirds of our energy consumption to fuel insufficient vehicles and to sacrifices the lives of our sons and daughters to protect those supplies,” he said.
Oil is a valuable commodity now, but 200 years ago, before the invention of refrigeration, so was salt, said R. James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA and current vice president of the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
“People fought wars over salt mines. It was very valuable back in its day,” he said. “We need to decide it is an important national objective to break our oil dependence.”
Harman, Hart and Woolsey agreed there are myriad options to get developed countries to kick their oil habit, but plug-in hybrid vehicles and advancement in infrastructure for flex- fuel systems would go a long way.
The panel, moderated by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. vice president Dov S. Zakheim, was asked why it has taken so long for the United States to address its unsafe energy policies.
Greed and a lack of political will, they answered.
But Harman noted there are two separate bills moving through the Senate and the House that are showing promise. The bills would enact higher fuel-economy standards for automobiles; promote hybrid plug-in technology and a program in which all vehicles could be retrofitted with electric power; and restructure energy grids.
“I see this as a big opportunity and finally a chance for Congress to prove we deserve our pay,” said Harman, who predicted President Bush would sign one or a combination of both of the bills into law this year.
Hart is less sure of the Bush administration.
As a member of the Presidential Climate Action Project, he is helping prepare an agenda for the next commander in chief.
“We don’t mean to be totally prescriptive,” said Hart, noting that the agenda will be broken into a prioritized set of menus.
