Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan blasted the Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Assistant Navy Secretary Meredith Berger last week for prioritizing climate change over shipbuilding and military readiness. The senator was asking why the Navy is not focusing on its shipbuilding plan — which is required by statute — but instead released its climate action plan.
“The Chinese military is not worried about climate change. It is worried about shipbuilding, hypersonics, and conducting a successful military invasion of Taiwan. Russia is not worried about climate change, it is worried about pushing its aggression deeper into Ukraine. And yet we have a secretary who’s releasing his climate action plan before it does anything on shipping. It’s remarkable. It’s outrageous. The only ones who are excited about it are Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” Sen Sullivan said.
Del Toro said it was his responsibility to “not waste taxpayer money on vessels that will never see the light of day.”
Although the Navy has been given procurement authority for amphibious vessels for three years in a row, Sullivan pointed out that for the third year in a row, the Navy has not procured the amphibs. He then said he wants Del Toro to come back to the committee soon and explain how he intends to follow the law.
“That’s your only option, Mr. Secretary.”
The shipbuilding plan that the Secretary of the Navy eventually released, after finishing its climate change plan, violates federal law because it doesn’t maintain the required minimum of 31 operational amphibious warships, as required by Congress in an amendment authored by Sullivan and passed last year.
Sullivan asked Berger why she thought the Navy can violate the law. Sullivan read from the Navy’s climate change plan, which includes “getting to 100% zero emission vehicles by 2035, including 100% zero emission light duty vehicle acquisition by 2027.” He then asked, “Is that remotely possible?”
Berger responded that “climate change is a threat to our installations and the investments that we make.”
Sullivan cut her short: “Do you think it was smart to get the climate action plan out before the 30-year shipbuilding plan out for the U.S. Navy? Was that a good use of priorities?”
Berger looked lost, mead, and dodged his question, instead saying that amphibious ships are used to provide humanitarian assistance in disaster relief.
The criticism comes at a time when the Navy is also being criticized for highlighting “nonbinary” members of the Navy in the social media accounts that the branch of military maintains, rather than focusing on projecting strength as a lethal fighting force.
