Education, energy part of national security, expert says; Adm. Gunn discusses energy security in Texas

San Antonians must demand more from their local, state and federal leaders. That, according to Lee Gunn, president of the American Security Project, a Washington, D.C.-based bipartisan think tank.

Speaking March 29 at the Fort Sam Golf Club, Gunn told 60 members of the Alamo Council of the Navy League that global competitiveness, energy dependence, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and climate change are all interrelated national security issues Americans should press their leadership to address.

“We need to coalesce,” Lee, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral, said. “We need to come to a meeting of the minds, not political extremes, but a consensus about how it’s important to America to get on with this.”

Gunn used higher education as an example of America’s declining global competitiveness, saying the country produced twice as many physics doctorates in 1956 as in 2008.

“We need to improve our education system so we create the brainpower in the U.S. to enable it to do what it needs to do in this new, technological age. The emphasis needs to be on improving the number of American citizens who aspire to succeed in what they consider difficult educational tracks. And so, top-to-bottom, the education focus needs to be on improving our competitiveness in every field in which it’s important for America to lead.”

Energy, according to Gunn, is one of those fields. He sees America’s dependence on foreign oil as not only a financial issue but a matter of security as well, saying Americans often think in narrow terms about energy and security.

“Too often people are not thinking about the hold this allows countries who don’t have our best interests at heart to have over us.”

Gunn adds it’s fortunate the U.S. has a powerful military and that its interests can be defended when and where the country chooses. He also warns that Americans should take a lesson away from what’s happening in the Middle East.

“Only 2 percent of the world’s daily oil production comes from Libya but oil prices have escalated 15 to 20 percent in recent days because of the turmoil there.

“That’s how close the demand and supply sides are to being in balance. The lesson from this is that we need to make it a higher priority to achieve energy independence and we need to do it in a way that will establish a new position of international leadership for the U.S.”

More domestic energy production, whether by wind or solar means, is going to be good for Texas according to Gunn, even in the unlikely event it reduces the number of oil-related jobs in the state.

“We need to admit that while continuing to expand our oil exploitation in our own country is important, there are lots of other solutions that need to be explored too. There’s more wind and solar power in Texas than any other state in the union. There are about 175,000 jobs in Texas tied to petroleum production and about 55,000 jobs currently tied to alternative energy. I absolutely believe that if we continue to increase our net energy capacity that jobs lost in the petroleum industry, if any, will be translated to alternative fuels.”

Gunn includes nuclear power in that alternative energy mix even though, he admits, the recent devastation in Japan has shown the industry’s vulnerability.

“Nuclear power has just taken a big setback. There will be a lot of post mortems done over what has happened in Japan. And there were a lot of permits pending worldwide that won’t be approved now. But the U.S. Navy has used nuclear power, accident free, since 1954. And that’s at sea, under the most demanding conditions. All of the U.S. submarines are nuclear powered. All the U.S. aircraft carriers are nuclear powered. It can be done safely. And nuclear power has to be part of the solution.”

The Navy League, founded in 1902, supports active duty sea service personnel and their families through its numerous local councils.