Army Engineers’ Green Agenda

Not that long ago, the idea of the Sierra Club and the Army Corps of Engineers work­ing on the same side of an issue might’ve seemed silly. But these days, the Army sees depen­dence on for­eign oil as a major national secu­rity risk. And so the engi­neers are call­ing on DC to make a bunch of changes straight out of the envi­ron­men­tal­ists’ play­book — like man­dat­ing bet­ter gas mileage and giv­ing out tax cred­its for green energy. (Although the bit about “open[ing] up Federal lands for oil and nat­ural gas” might not exactly be met with huz­zahs at Sierra HQ.)
To sus­tain its mis­sion and ensure its capa­bil­ity to project and sup­port the forces, the Army must insu­late itself from the eco­nomic and logis­ti­cal energy-​​related prob­lems com­ing in the near to mid future. This requires a tran­si­tion to mod­ern, secure, and effi­cient energy sys­tems, and to build­ing tech­nolo­gies that are safe and envi­ron­men­tal friendly
Many of the issues in the energy arena are out­side the con­trol of the Army. Several actions are in the purview of the national gov­ern­ment to fos­ter the abil­ity of all groups, includ­ing the Army, to opti­mize their nat­ural resource man­age­ment. The Army needs to present its per­spec­tive to higher author­i­ties and be pre­pared to pro­ceed regard­less of the national mea­sures that are taken. The fol­low­ing steps by the national gov­ern­ment would help the Army with its energy challenges:

Increase sup­plies
– Pull renew­able tech­nol­ogy mar­kets to pro­duce more cost effec­tive solu­tions with tax incen­tives and large Federal appli­ca­tions.
– Provide incen­tives for green power pro­duc­tion through con­tin­ued and expanded tax cred­its.
– Open up Federal lands for oil and nat­ural gas har­vest­ing where envi­ron­men­tally appro­pri­ate.
– Encourage the devel­op­ment of LNG ter­mi­nals and infra­struc­ture by stream­lin­ing approvals and assist­ing with local approvals.
Modernize infra­struc­ture.
– Support mod­ern­iz­ing and expand­ing the elec­tric­ity grid.
– Support the con­struc­tion of a nat­ural gas pipeline from AK and Canada.
– Enhance the expan­sion of LNG ter­mi­nals and nat­ural gas infra­struc­ture.
Diversify sources.
– Invest in research and devel­op­ment (R&D) in clean coal tech­nolo­gies, renew­able tech­nolo­gies, car­bon seques­tra­tion, breeder reac­tor nuclear power.
– Invest in R&D in energy effi­ciency in the built envi­ron­ment.
Optimize end-​​use.
– Significantly increase Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) stan­dards and expand to all classes of motor vehi­cles.
– Expand rebate pro­grams for hybrid vehi­cles.
– Expand appli­ance and equip­ment effi­ciency stan­dards as many states are doing.

UPDATE 12:15 PM: This newslet­ter from the U.S. Army Environmental Center gives a good round-​​up of some of the service’s green projects — from Ethanol pumps at Ft. Benning to sus­tain­able con­struc­tion at Ft. Lewis.
(Big ups: RC)

June 5th, 2006 | Cammo Green | 192066 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2006/06/05/army-engineers-green-agenda/Army+Engineers%27+Green+Agenda2006-06-05+16%3A54%3A04david_axe You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.