Sunday, January 18, 2009

New Energy-Savvy NSC May Wield More Power This Time

Marine General Jim Jones is 1 day away from becoming our new National Security Advisor. Though if this report is accurate, he may quickly transition from advisor to manager if more members are added to the traditional National Security Council (NSC): 
The council currently includes the secretaries of state and defense, the director of national intelligence, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the national security adviser and the president and vice president. "I think the way to think about it is that those individual secretaries and DNI will have important jobs and a tremendous amount of power," Mr. Locher told The Washington Times. "We need something more, though. We need that ability to integrate. We need a manager. Gen. Jones will have to play a more important role than national security advisers have in the past."
As blogged earlier here, Jones brings a heck of a lot more interest in and understanding of energy issues than any of his predecessors. Were he given more power as NSM, he'd likely be able to bring more responsiveness to energy and other national security issues. Thing is, though, the most important energy decisions need to be made now, proactively, before we're in the crisis situations that are just ahead of us.

Photo: Washington Post

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