ASP COO Andrew Holland in E&E News
On July 30, 2019 ASP COO Andrew Holland was quoted in an article from E&E News on the Trump administrations nomination for the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas). Ratcliffe has a history of criticizing the EPA and opposing environmental legislation. Ratcliffe opposed the Clean Power Plan, voted to repeal the Stream Protection Rule, and Ratcliffe’s views on climate change are generally tied to economics.
Concern is growing that someone with a history of opposing climate change and climate legislation was nominated to be the new DNI given the threat climate change poses to national security. The Worldwide Threat Assessment, a report released each year by the DNI detailing potential threats, has included climate change since the George W. Bush administration.
On Ratcliffe’s nomination, Holland said,
“The job as director of national intelligence is to collate intelligence from across the entire intelligence community; it’s not to put your own spin on things.”
Holland added,
“As a Republican congressman, the only lens you view climate change through is a threat to industry. Fortunately, that doesn’t come through when you’re DNI; you’re going to have a very different idea and threat perception.”
Finally, Holland did not speculate on how Ratcliffe would handle the job as DNI, but instead pointed out that ignoring climate change as a national security threat for the sake of political messaging would be dangerous and akin to ignoring intercepted communications from terrorists plotting an attack.
“You’re willfully creating a blind spot; you’re telling intelligence analysts to not use sound, peer-reviewed science in creating their threat assessments.”
