Vets4Energy is steadfastly promoting energy independence for America, an issue U.S. military veterans are principally interested in for national security reasons, Tony Caldarelli, the state chairman of the Pennsylvania Vets4Energy chapter, said.
“When I went to Iraq in November 2004, there were a lot of good reasons to be involved in the Middle East and one of them was because we needed their energy," Caldarelli, an Infantry Captain who served in both the Pennsylvania Army National Guard (PAANG), and in the United States Army Reserve (USAR) where he served as a logistics officer in the 463rd Engineer Combat Battalion in Iraq, said. "There still may be good reasons to be involved in the Middle East, but one of them is not because we need their energy.”Caldarelli, born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and now living in the western Pennsylvania said he continues to serve his country as a Vets4Energy volunteer.
Vets4Energy volunteers represent all branches and ranks of the U.S. military. They partner with Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) across the country to lobby policymakers and advocate for improved energy policies that can sustain national security.
“The idea is let’s become energy independent so that young men and young women today don’t have to go and do what it was we had to do," Caldarelli told American Security News. "Our country’s energy has been paid for by young men and young women giving their lives or their limbs or their mental health.”
From the perspective of the organization, Caldarelli said, America should own and control its own abundant sources of oil and natural gas while also embracing the development of alternative sources such as wind, solar and nuclear.
In turn, the country would be better able to lessen its dependence on importing energy from countries that don’t necessarily have America’s best interests in mind, which presents both economic and national security problems.
During one 360-day tour in Iraq’s Sunni Triangle, for instance, Caldarelli said his battalion was hammered by mortar rocket attacks virtually every day.
“You didn’t have to be a genius to realize that some of the munitions that were being dropped on us every day were being paid for by American dollars," Caldarelli said."So all our oil-field dollars and technology were killing American soldiers.”
Instead, Caldarelli thinks the military should be used like Tobasco: only when called for, only in specific recipes and only with restraint.
“Energy runs the world, man, and we have had stupid policies and it always comes down to the same reason: someone’s making money off of us,” Caldarelli said.
Caldarelli said right now, the U.S. has a 100-year-plus supply of oil and natural gas, at least, which is why investing in the production of oil and natural gas won’t just make the country energy independent, it also will make America economically stronger by creating jobs, building and repairing infrastructure and producing revenue for government coffers at the federal, state and local levels.
Caldarelli, who is currently training in workforce development, said Vets4Energy is not a shell for big oil companies.
“Big oil doesn’t tell me anything," Caldarelli said. "This organization just gave me a voice for something that I always knew - that the Department of Energy was formed to make us energy independent and billions of government dollars later we’re not. But we can be now because of recent advances in technology.”
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