Keeping Up With The Jones

Let's continue my look at various cabinet and White House staff appointments by taking a look at the new national security advisor, James Jones. By all accounts Jones, a former Marine general, is fairly apolitical, although he supported John McCain in the election and has been tapped to head at least a couple studies by the Bush Administration. He has commanded NATO forces in the past and has a keen understanding of both military and diplomatic issues. By all accounts, he's a smart, committed public servant, and his views on some major issues have been decent, particularly on Afghanistan, where he is an advocate for improving both reconstruction and diplomatic efforts.

Many are justifiably concerned about Jones' most recent job at the US Chamber of Commerce, advising on energy issues. Energy is absolutely a national security concern, so his new position will be at least tangential to that issue. And the Chamber's energy policy, in a word, sucks.

Jones sits on the board of Chevron Corp., and since March 2007 has been president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, which has been criticized by environmental groups.

"They have a reprehensible record," said Frank O'Donnell, the outspoken leader of Clean Air Watch, of the institute led by Jones.

The institute calls for the immediate expansion of domestic oil and gas production, nuclear energy and clean-coal technology, in addition to investment in renewable and alternative energy sources.

O'Donnell criticized institute reports under Jones that challenged the use of the Clean Air Act to combat global warming and the right of states, such as California, to impose environmental standards that go beyond those set by the federal government.

"Since global warming is a security threat, this selection raises a real eyebrow," O'Donnell said in an e-mail. "Will Jones be predisposed to compromise the new administration's environmental agenda, both at home and in the international arena? . . . Stay tuned."

We cannot think in the mindset of the past, where we use the military to provide safe passage for oil and fight resource wars. The future of energy has nothing to do with "Drill baby drill" or clean coal, which doesn't exist. Hopefully Jones' views on this subject will be taken with massive amounts of grains of salt. At this point, the jobs of Energy Secretary and EPA Administrator had better be far to the left of Jones to balance this out.