The lawyer getting the Army ready for climate change

Presented by JBS USA:

Oct 05, 2022 View in browser   By Lamar Johnson Presented by JBS USA VERBATIM Rachel Jacobson is the Army's climate chief. | Francis Chung/E&E News As the Army's assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, it's Rachel Jacobson's job to make sure the military's biggest branch makes the right moves to reach the Biden administration's military climate goals, including getting microgrids on every base by 2035 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Jacobson has an extensive environmental background, having spent the bulk of her career with the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. She later served as a political appointee in the Obama administration's Interior Department. Her current role, for which she was confirmed in April, puts her in charge of policy and oversight of all Army sustainability and energy programs, and she is the primary adviser for installation policy and energy security and management. Jacobson sat down at the Pentagon with POLITICO's E&E News for a chat about the Army's plan of attack. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did you develop the environment as your key focus? Sort of by mistake, really. I started at the Department of Justice; I prosecuted fraud for a few years. And then I used to joke with people, well, what do you do after you prosecute fraud? You either continue to prosecute fraud, you go out and you defend those who are accused of committing fraud, or you commit fraud yourself — and that was certainly not an option. But at the time, the division, the Environment, Natural Resources Division, they were just looking to hire litigators. Plain old litigator, didn't matter what kind of litigator. … I thought, 'Well, why not?' That's how I learn it, because as a lawyer, particularly a litigator, you have to learn new subjects all the time. And I really loved the issues. I loved them ... [and] the chance to work with so many scientists and other experts, including the economists, by the way, which was not unfamiliar to me, and to work with a whole different suite of federal agencies on these kinds of issues. I just loved it. How do you tailor climate resilience across installations? We do this because of readiness. We're not doing this just because we're interested in seeing how many greenhouse gases we can reduce. … It's good that we're doing that as well — and the president has directed us to do so in several executive orders — but this is about readiness fundamentally. And climate change has been described as a national security threat going back many years actually. It's been described as a national security threat and that recognition has been more and more accepted. So, across the board, we have to make sure we're addressing climate change. … Each installation has its own management plan. And within its management plan, there are also, a tier down, energy and water management plans. So each installation — to your question — can tailor specifically based on its needs based on where it is regionally.   A message from JBS USA: What food producers bring to the table should sustain families—and our planet—for generations. That's why, at JBS, we are investing heavily in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. By prioritizing sustainable food production today, we're able to help ensure a thriving food system for all. Learn More   From the Army's perspective, why is climate change a national security threat? Globally, drought, flooding and melting sea ice create all sorts of national security threats. We have opened navigational channels that we didn't have before, which means adversaries have easier access. And that's problematic. Drought, floods and other extreme weather patterns that affect geopolitically unstable areas of the world cause vast migration and more instability and pose a huge national security threat. The fuel and energy and natural resource competition for natural resources and shortages caused national security threats. And then more locally, on an installation level, if our assets are vulnerable to climate change, because of wildfires, because of flooding and other natural disasters, that's a threat. If our troops are often, very much too often, are diverted from training for disaster response and humanitarian relief caused by climate change, that's a national security threat. If it's too hot to train, that's a national security threat because we're losing training days. How do you adapt to extreme heat conditions? Our climate strategy has what we call three lines of effort. Our first line of effort is installations. So it's our infrastructure, our energy and our water in our buildings. Are we using sustainable building materials — which we are going to — and we're incorporating that at the installation itself to that physical footprint of where our soldiers train and live? Our second line of effort is acquisition and technology. So are we making sure that the vehicles of the future have these … potentially hybrid tactical vehicles that we're working on data, acquisition and technology, as well as supply chain? So ultimately, we want to make sure that our acquisition policies reflect supply chain and a low-carbon supply chain. And our third line of effort is training. Because we recognize now that our soldiers need to train in extreme conditions, they need to be able to train to fight wars in extreme environmental conditions. So, while I say OK, it's too hot to train, we're going to have to learn to acclimate to that. Because we have to be able to fight the wars where they're happening. And we can't just say, 'Well, it's too hot there, we're not going to go fight that war.' That's not acceptable. So, we have a huge adaptation profile here, particularly in the training and so forth. But then in our mitigation profile, I'll say is, is going to be more focused on our greenhouse gas emissions and making sure that we're taking care of our own house, in terms of being good stewards. Best movie you've seen this year? Like everybody, I didn't get to see a whole lot of movies this year, until we finally were like safely feeling that it was OK to go to the movie theater. It surprised me too, but the best one I saw was 'Top Gun: Maverick.' It's so good. That was so good.   A message from JBS USA:     SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     YOU TELL US GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. We deliver data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and news Tuesday through Friday to keep you in the loop on sustainability. Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn and reporter Jordan Wolman. Reach us all at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. Want more? Don't we all. Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still free!   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — As BlackRock Inc. reshapes its executive team amid attacks over its ESG policies, Bloomberg is reporting that opponents may be overlooking a key constituency: workers. — How much is Starbucks Corp. spending to fight unionization at its locations across the country? Four U.S. senators want to know. — The Biden administration backed away from funding a Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. study on Salton Sea lithium extraction shortly after agreeing to it, Reuters reports.   A message from JBS USA: As a food company committed to feeding larger needs, at JBS we believe in sustainable food production. There's nothing more important than ensuring that our planet can continue to feed us all long into the future. Because of that, we're leading the industry in change, targeting 2040 to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and investing over $1B to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, our emissions. In doing so, we're setting a new standard for food production—one that allows sustainable practices, quality products, and affordable prices to go hand in hand. It's our way of bringing more to the table. Learn More     Follow us on Twitter Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Please click here and follow the steps to unsubscribe.