Department of Defense Energy Security Act

 "Oil is the umbilical cord and lifeline of the crusader community...Focus your operations on oil, especially in Iraq and the Gulf area, since this will cause them to die off." Al Qaeda Leader, Osama bin Laden.

Each day, the U.S. military consumes nearly 400,000 barrels of fuel.  In Iraq and Afghanistan, that amounts to nearly 68 million gallons of fuel a month or nearly 17 full-up convoys a day just to keep our deployed forces operational. 

The United States is the world’s largest consumer of energy, using seven billion barrels of oil each year, importing 60% or $400 billion worth from countries unfriendly to the U.S. and her interests.  The Department of Defense is the world’s largest consumer of energy, consuming 135 million barrels of fuel and 30 million megawatt-hours of electricity at a cost of over $20 billion per year. DoD’s energy consumption has serious national security implications.

National Security

Energy supply security affects the DoD’s ability to accomplish its mission, and efforts to secure supply lines and deliver fuel in-theater directly results in the deaths of servicemembers charged with protecting it.  A 2007 report by the Army Environmental Policy Institute found that 170 servicemembers lost their lives in attacks on fuel convoys that year alone.  A second internal Army report found that reducing fuel consumption across the Army’s Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) by just 10% could save as many as 70 lives per year.

Our military’s reliance is not just on the battlefield.  At home, Defense facilities rely on a fragile national grid, leaving critical assets vulnerable.  The Defense Science Board found in its 2008 report “More Fight – Less Fuel” that “critical national security and homeland defense missions are at an unacceptably high risk of extended outage from failure of the grid.”

Solution:

The Department of Defense Energy Security Act of 2010 (DoDESA) systemically addresses DoD energy supply and use.  DoDESA decreases consumption by facilities and by tactical and non-tactical vehicles and increases the use of renewable electricity sources to relieve the Department’s reliance on external electrical sources.  Additionally, DoDESA sets overarching policies to implement sustainable acquisition practices, sets new DoD Energy Performance Goals, and requires DoD to develop an Energy Performance Plan and an implementation assessment for accomplishing their goal of deriving 25% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

DoDESA decreases the consumption of petroleum by:

•    Increasing the procurement of electric, hybrid, and high efficiency non-tactical vehicles;
•    Integrating hybrid drive into tactical vehicles;
•    Accelerating the production of biofuels for aviation that do not require new fuel infrastructure.

DoDESA reduces our reliance on the grid by:

•    Auditing energy and water use at existing facilities and implementing cost-effective improvements, including through additional on-site electricity generation;
•    Installing high efficiency insulation at forward operating facilities that reduce usage by up to 70%
•    Robustly funds the Energy Conservation Investment Program that retrofits our oldest buildings with smart lighting, insulated windows and efficient climate control systems;
•    Promotes new and large-scale renewable energy projects as well as small-scale solar, wind and geothermal systems with smart grids at new facilities

In order to prevent any degradation in our military’s ability to defeat our enemies, DoDESA includes exemptions for fuel use in major combat operations and permits the Secretary of Defense to waive any requirements that hamper their ability to accomplish their mission or maintain our national security.

Watch the May 12, 2010 press conference featuring Congresswoman Giffords and R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Read this report or watch this video for more information.

Check out this letter in support of DODESA.