Japan, the Pentagon, and the Future of Renewable Energy: Battle Lines Form

Army, Business News/Analysis, Defense, Federal Agency, Japan, Marines, Navy, Opinions

March 22, 2012

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by Andrew DeWitt (The Asia-Pacific Journal) …The Republicans think they see their chance to throw a wrench in the works. They recently decided to open congressional hearings to try, through focusing on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, to put a political face on the issue and reduce the US military’s longstanding and massive renewable initiatives to a “Solyndra”-style plot by the Obama people to reward powerful friends with lucrative contracts.

The Republicans are likely stepping into a minefield. This is because the Pentagon’s concern about energy has its own trajectory, rooted in Iraq and other recent battlefield experiences as well as the increasing electrification of the soldier in the field and the global network of bases. Among the greenest Americans are the Marines at forward bases in Afghanistan, who charge their roughly 7 kilogrammes of batteries per soldier with Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy Systems (GREENS), “a portable 300-watt hybrid battery generator that uses the sun to produce electric currents.”

That green approach may not make sense to fossil-fuel industry shills who sit in comfy chairs in Congress or write op-eds for the Heartland Institute. But it makes sense to Marines who don’t want to die humping fuel (over 50% of supply logistics) to power electric generators. The US Army’s calculations show that for every 24 fuel convoys in Afghanistan, one soldier or Marine gets killed.

…The military have a compelling interest in energy alternatives because it wants to reduce casualties, reduce costs, and draw down supply lines as it faces multiple wars. But their ambitions are even larger. They want to lead an energy revolution that they see as being in the national interest.

…In the end, this debate comes down to a very easily understood, clear-cut example in which young men and women either die for conventional fuel or don’t because they have renewable ways to generate power. The Obama administration, burned badly on its earlier attempts to promote renewable energy, appears to have learned an important political lesson: let the military tell the story, as it’s the most trusted institution in American politics… READ MORE and MORE (North Carolina Military Business Center)

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