‘Alternative energy peace corps’ on the way
So often in Washington, the findings of a major commission are released, discussed, and then tossed aside. Not so with the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, whose recommendations are finding their way into legislation this fall. One of the key recommendations moving in Congress this week is the idea of creating ...
So often in Washington, the findings of a major commission are released, discussed, and then tossed aside. Not so with the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, whose recommendations are finding their way into legislation this fall.
So often in Washington, the findings of a major commission are released, discussed, and then tossed aside. Not so with the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism, whose recommendations are finding their way into legislation this fall.
One of the key recommendations moving in Congress this week is the idea of creating a capability inside the U.S. government to help developing countries find alternatives to nuclear and petroleum-based energy that are environmentally and fiscally sustainable.
Senator Daniel Akaka, D-HI, added a mirror of the Energy Development Program Implementation Act, which requires the State and Energy Departments to create strategic and implementation plans to carry out this effort, to a larger WMD-related bill moving through the committee process now.
"This bill will create an alternative energy Peace Corps, as called for 31 years ago by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978," former senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, the chairs of the WMD commission, testified before the Senate Homeland Security committee last month, "As our report recommended, this bill would help reduce the further spread of nuclear technologies ostensibly for civilian purposes."
The energy development legislation has widespread support in Congress and the nonproliferation community. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, R-NE, has a companion measure in the House.
"This is an idea whose time has come," said Christopher Paine, director of the nuclear program and the Natural Resources Defense Council, "Environmentally sustainable energy supply should be a central pillar of U.S. foreign policy. This bill just makes good sense."
The overall bill, entitled the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act, is led by committee heads Joseph Lieberman, I-CT, and Susan Collins, R-ME. The markup of that bill continues next week.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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