DOD Secretary Panetta States Climate Change is a National Security Issue, Federal Agencies Promote Green Technology
In a May 2 speech to the Environmental Defense Fund, a leading environmental organization, Secretary Leon Panetta made clear the Defense Department views climate change and rising oil prices as a national security concern. Panetta dismissed any politicization by saying that rising oil prices and reliance on oil supplies from the middle east has significant implications for the U.S. military. Analysts have estimated that the Pentagon has spent $65 billion to $85 billion a year protecting Middle East allies and ensuring the flow of petroleum to world markets since 1980.
“The quest for energy will also continue to shape, and reshape, the strategic environment — from the destabilizing consequences of resource competition to the efforts of potential adversaries to block the free flow of energy supplies,” Panetta said. “These strategic and practical considerations weighed heavily on us as we developed our new defense strategy.”
The Pentagon has requested more than $1 billion for efficient aircraft and aircraft engines, hybrid electric drives for ships, improved generators and micro-grids for forward-deployed bases, and combat vehicle energy efficiency programs. Another $1 billion was requested for energy efficiency. The Army, Navy and Air Force have committed to producing at least 3 gigawatts of renewable energy at their installations in the coming years.
In the absence of legislative opportunities for a clear energy strategy, the Obama Administration has used the federal agencies to promote green technologies. In a speech to our Clean Energy Initiative on April 25, Secretary Salazar outlined the Department of Interior's 'All of the Above' energy strategy.
In the same vein, last December, the Administration launched a their We Can’t Wait initiative, challenging federal agencies to make at least $2 billion worth of energy-efficiency upgrades over the next two years. Meeting the first of several milestones of the challenge, federal agencies have identified $2.1 billion of projects that will pay for themselves using performance-based contracts.
The wind industry installed 1,695 megawatts of capacity in the first quarter of 2012, a 50 percent increase from the year before. But the industry remains on pins and needles over the rapidly approaching expiration of the Production Tax Credit, according to the American Wind Energy Association's quarterly market report.
