Retired admiral repeats warning

Retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn returned to Charleston on Friday to repeat his message that climate change and U.S. dependence on foreign oil are national security threats that must be addressed together.

"If you don't believe in climate change, great, let's focus on energy security," he said at a small private luncheon at High Cotton. "There is no excuse for inaction."

Attendees at the luncheon included local environmentalists, business owners and utility company executives. However, none of the invited members of the Legislature attended.

McGinn commanded the U.S. Third Fleet in the 1990s, was deputy chief of Naval Operations, Warfare Requirements and Programs and is a member of the Center for Naval Analysis' Military Advisory Board.

He said climate change has the potential to be a "threat multiplier" because droughts, flooding and other conditions linked to climate change could destabilize or topple weak governments and create breeding grounds for terrorism.

Dependence on foreign oil, McGinn said, is also a national security threat and one that can be addressed through the same potential solutions; for addressing climate change; energy- efficiency and alternative energy sources.

"I'm saying that we have the ability, and we have the need, to lead the world in clean energy," he said. "We're getting more vulnerable with every day that goes by."

In July, he gave a similar but public presentation at The Citadel, joined by former U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va.

"This has a lot more to do with national security than with the future of polar bears," McGinn told the audience there.

McGinn was among a bipartisan panel of retired four-star and three-star admirals and generals who in 2007 issued a report on the national security implications of climate change. He is among a number of retired military leaders who are touring the country, trying to drum up support for climate change legislation.

Retired Marine Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Cheney spoke on the subject in Washington this week, for example, on behalf of the American Security Project.

Cheney's 30 years in the Marine Corps career included a tour as commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Eastern Recruiting Region on Parris Island.

In Charleston, McGinn said he is not promoting any one political party or person, but he lavished praise on U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the only Senate Republican who has spoken favorably about a proposed plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

"Senator Graham is a leader," said McGinn, who praised Graham for his military background and "good intellect."

Graham has taken criticism from liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans over the plan, which liberals describe as corporate welfare, and conservatives deride as a tax on energy.

Graham has been censured by GOP leaders in Charleston and Lexington counties, partially for his support of the climate change legislation.

McGinn said he considers himself an advocate of free-market principles but also believes that "you need government help to push the economy in new directions."

"We just need to act like Americans, and not a bunch of kids in the playground yelling names at each other an accomplishing nothing," he said.

McGinn was joined Friday by Matt Rojansky, executive director of Partnership for a Secure America, and Bob Fiedler, director of Strategic Defense Education for The Defense Education Forum of The Reserve Officers Association.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.