Global Warming Reality? DOD Goal of 3 GW of Renewables by 2025, Executive Order Creates Interagency Group on Nat Gas

Global temperatures last month were  the coolest since 1999, providing a contrast to the lower 48 U.S. states, where March was the hottest on record.  “The average global temperature for March 2012 made it the coolest March since 1999, yet the 16th warmest since record keeping began in 1880,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its monthly analysis.  “Warmer-than-average conditions occurred across nearly all of Canada, the contiguous United States, Mexico, Europe, Argentina, Peru, and parts of northern and central Russia, India, China, and eastern Brazil. Cooler-than-average regions included Alaska, Australia, eastern and western Russia, and parts of New Zealand,” states the agency’s National Climatic Data Center.

The Department of Defense set a goal of uisng 3 GW of renewable energy by 2025.  Each of the armed services has committed to use 1 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy by 2025, for a total of 3 GW.  According to the announcement, the renewable energy purchases will be made at no net cost to taxpayers, using contracting vehicles such as power purchasing agreements, utility energy savings contracts, and other financing mechanisms.  The new DOD initiative builds on the President’s announcement in the 2012 State of the Union address that the Navy would use 1 GW of clean energy by 2020.  

The President issued an Executive Order to establish a new "Interagency Working Group to Support Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources."  Led by the Domestic Policy Council, the new working group has an overal mission to mutually coordinate, share, plan and consult with other agencies and White House Offices participating in the working group.  Included are the Department of Defense (DOD); the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the Department of Interior; the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Commerce; the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Energy; the Department of Transportation; the Department of Homeland Security; the Council on Environmental Quality; the Office of Management and Budget; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.  The Executive Order does not alter the regulatory authority or responsibilities of any of the participating agencies.