Just got this note from retired Air Force Lt Col Rob Levinson:

The U.S. Military is getting into the clean energy act in a big way. It’s now pretty well known that the largest solar power plant in the world is located at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The Air Force, however, isn’t just resting on it’s laurels; the Soaring Heights Community at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tuscon, Arizona is about to become the largest solar powered community in the continental U.S. (http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/10/27/arizona-air-force-base-community-to-rely-75-on-solar)

The project will boost Arizona’s use of renewable energy by 15%! Not to be outdone, the Army is getting into the act with their own solar powered housing complex in Hawaii which, when completed, will be even bigger than the Air Force’s in Nevada.

And on Friday, October 30th the Navy earned two Presidential Energy Saving awards, as well as eight awards from the Department of Energy.  The Navy estimates that since they began focusing on saving energy and water they have saved billions of dollars in utility costs.

But why are the services doing this? The first reason is rather obvious- cost. Every dollar the services can save on energy costs is another dollar that can be spent on body armor or mine resistant vehicles for our troops or other priorities. But more importantly, the leaders of the our nation’s military have recognized that our dependence on fossil fuels hurts our national security. At the strategic level, it forces us to build relationships and defend countries with whom we have little in common, who don’t share our values, and who often plain just don’t like us very much. At the operational level, being dependent on a resource that you don’t control in order to fly your planes, drive your tanks, or sail your ships, leaves a vulnerability that the enemy can exploit. At the most basic tactical level, our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have to go out on the roads, where they are vulnerable to IEDs, so they can move fuel around from base to base. Every time we can take one of these convoys off the road because effieciencies mean that the fuel is not needed, it put less of our troops at risk and lets them focus on defeating our enemies instead of moving gas around. Clean Energy- its not just for tree huggers anymore!

Rob Levinson, Lt Col USAF (Ret)

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