Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Biden's Beliefs: Obama's Running Mate Calls Energy America's Top Issue

Forget, for a moment, the motorcade of big SUVs that ferried Sen. Joseph Biden this morning from his Delaware home to the airport and a flight to veep-candidate stardom. Energy, according to the veteran senator from Delaware, whom Sen. Barack Obama announced early this morning as his running mate, is “the single most consequential issue” facing the country.

“If I could wave a wand, and the Lord said I could solve one problem, I would solve the energy crisis,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign appearance last year, when he was running against Sen. Obama to become the Democratic presidential nominee. (See a YouTube clip of his comments here.) Curbing the growth in greenhouse-gas emissions, through improved auto mileage and through “clean-coal” power-plant technologies, is crucial, he said.
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In a Salon interview last fall, then-presidential candidate Biden detailed his views on the subject. Some highlights from that interview:

Climate change as a security issue: If the predictions of the scientists are correct, you could see ocean levels rise three feet. If that occurs, you’re going to displace over 35 million people just in South Asia, and they’re going to physically be looking for a new place to land. Just that, all by itself, is going to initiate major new conflicts relating to war. You’re going to have nations fighting over arable land, more border disputes and, as a consequence, a great deal of instability.