Climate: Shut down coal plant for national security

Our national security is at serious risk. How? Climate change.

This isn’t my opinion; it’s that of the Pentagon. The Defense Department’s own reports detail how challenges driven by climate change will impact our military’s capacity to defend the U.S., stating that it “poses immediate risks to U.S. national security.”

This isn’t a problem that can be solved by purchasing more navy destroyers or beefing up our nuclear arsenal. But it is something we can locally impact by letting Puget Sound Energy know we want them to shut down the Colstrip power plant in Montana — the dirtiest coal plant this side of the Mississippi — by 2025.

Don’t care about polar bears? Fine. How about security?

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Climate: Shut down coal plant for national security."