Defense is leading the way on clean energy, study says
As government’s largest power consumer, the military services have the most at stake in developing low-cost, low-carbon fuel sources.
Just in time for Earth Day, a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts finds the Defense Department, which accounts for 80 percent of the government's energy consumption, is the unlikely poster child of energy stewardship.
Citing the military services' ambitious plans to cut energy use and a range of innovations, from alternative-fuel aircraft to installations powered by renewable electricity sources, researchers at the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate found that Defense is serving as a catalyst for developing cleaner energy sources and reducing dependence on foreign petroleum supplies.
As if to confirm the point, on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Navy will fly an F/A-18 Super Hornet fueled with a 50/50 blend of biofuel made from camelina oil. The flight of the Green Hornet, as the aircraft has been dubbed, follows an Air Force A-10 fighter's voyage in March using the plant oil fuel blend.
"The flight will demonstrate that our systems can work on biofuel," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in a statement. "After it is successful, and we are absolutely confident that it will be, we will move to expand biofuel testing to our marine gas turbine engines and to the engines of our tactical vehicles."
The Pew study notes that Defense Secretary Robert Gates identified energy as one of the department's top 25 transformational priorities. The Pentagon's most recent Quadrennial Defense Review released earlier this year, for the first time drew a clear relationship between climate change and national security, noting that shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels and droughts all could accelerate regional instability and conflict.
Defense's interest in developing alternative fuels and cutting consumption is hardly altruistic. The Pew study said, "The department's reliance on fossil fuels compromises combat effectiveness by restricting mobility, flexibility and endurance on the battlefield. Fuel logistics have inhibited the progress of U.S. forces driving into Iraq and such limitations continue to impede operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a single month of combat, June 2008, 44 vehicles and 220,000 gallons of fuel were lost in attacks or other events, DoD officials found."
The monetary costs are enormous as well. Defense consumes more than 300,000 barrels of oil a day to power its aircraft, ships and combat vehicles, and it burns 3.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in an average year to keep its 600,000 buildings operating. In 2008, the department's energy budget was officially $20 billion, but the Pew study noted that this is only a fraction of the Pentagon's true energy costs. The full cost of people and operations required to deliver fuels needed on the battlefield runs as high as $400 a gallon.
"National security experts have been clear in their warnings. America's dependence on foreign sources of energy constitutes a threat -- militarily, diplomatically and economically," said Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew's climate and energy programs. "But the department is doing more than sounding an alarm; it has enacted energy goals and is inventing, testing and deploying new technologies and alternative fuels to meet those goals. The military is, in many respects, leading the way and helping to re-energize America's future."
Cuttino added, "This leadership and ingenuity of the military must be mirrored by Congress and the administration."