The Democrat Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says a new Defense Department report on the impact of climate change on U.S. military installations is “inadequate.”
Rep. Adam Smith slammed the report shortly after Trump administration officials released it Friday, saying in a statement that military officials failed to present a clear strategy for dealing with flooding, drought, desertification, wildfires and thawing permafrost expected to affect U.S. bases in the years to come.
The report “demonstrates a continued unwillingness to seriously recognize and address the threat that climate change poses to our national security and military readiness,” the Washington Democrat said.
While the report concludes that virtually every military department is at risk of being affected by a climate event, Mr. Smith argued “it fails to even minimally discuss a mitigation plan to address the vulnerabilities.”
Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Jack Reed joined in the criticism Friday as well, claiming Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan presented an “incomplete” report, which the Pentagon to was required to compile under a 2018 order from Congress.
Mr. Reed of Rhode Island said the document that Trump administration officials ultimately delivered to Capitol Hill “reads like an introductory primer and carries about as much value as a phonebook.”
The administration has resisted using the term “Climate Change” in public statements, with officials disputing claims that changes to the environment are being driven by human development and energy consumption.
Friday’s report acknowledged that the global climate is changing, but made no mention of what may be causing the change. It ran under the title: “Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense.”
Mr. Reed lamented that the report did not include topics that he believed lawmakers had ordered the Pentagon to assess under the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
Specifically, he noted that the Marine Corps is not mentioned in the report. He also asserted that the report presented no assessment of the cost of damage to Tyndall Air Force base in Florida from Hurricane Michael, and to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence — two massive storms that ripped into the U.S. East Coast last year.
The report concluded that “resources for assessing and responding to climate impacts are provided within existing DoD missions, funds, and capabilities and subsumed under existing risk management processes.”
Of the $716 billion 2019 defense budget, Mr. Reed argued that roughly $8.7 billion will need to be directed towards repairs from hurricanes Michael and Florence.
“Climate change is already costing the Department significant amounts of taxpayer resources and impacting military readiness,” the senator said. “The Trump Administration should direct DoD to follow suit and minimize risks.”
There was no immediate response from the administration on Friday to the criticism from the two Democrat lawmakers.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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