The New York Times reports that America’s military leaders are moving aggressively to increase the Defense Department’s use of renewable energy:
After a decade of waging wars in remote corners of the globe where fuel is not readily available, senior commanders have come to see overdependence on fossil fuel as a big liability, and renewable technologies — which have become more reliable and less expensive over the past few years — as providing a potential answer. These new types of renewable energy now account for only a small percentage of the power used by the armed forces, but military leaders plan to rapidly expand their use over the next decade.
The U.S.S. Makin Island (shown above) is a prime example of this growing trend by military planners. The hybrid vessel is a Wasp class amphibious assault ship, which at speeds under 10 knots runs on electricity rather than on fossil fuel, a shift that saved 900,000 gallons of fuel on its maiden voyage from Mississippi to San Diego, compared with a conventional ship its size, the Navy said.
Another example would be in Afghanistan, where the military buys gasoline for just over $1 a gallon. The cost of getting a single gallon of fuel to some forward operating bases? A whopping $400.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has established a high benchmark for the Navy and the Marines: 50 percent of all power for bases, cars, and ships to come from renewable sources by 2020.
“There are a lot of profound reasons for doing this, but for us at the core it’s practical,” Mabus told The Times.
Read the entire story HERE.