Reducing demand, alternative energy sources and improving the energy security of mil. ops.

Pentagon Strategy Addresses Energy Challenges

July 20, 2011 – Reducing demand, finding alternative energy sources and improving the energy security of military operations are among the goals of the Defense Department’s operational energy strategy, a senior Pentagon official said here yesterday.

Sharon E. Burke, assistant secretary of defense for operational energy plans and programs, described the strategy during an Army and Air Force energy forum.

“[The strategy is] going to guide the entire department in how we use energy for military operations,” Burke said. “It’s the framework for moving forward with our energy challenges.” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned of a changing security environment and its effects on operational energy demand, she noted.

“Improving our energies could not only improve our military effectiveness and our ability to operate in the world, but it is also important to our readiness,” Burke said. “Secretary Panetta, in his short time in office, has already cautioned us all that we need to have humility in predicting the shape or direction of future conflicts. … So energy is a part of that changing security environment, but it’s also part of that adaptation, and how we better prepare for this changing world and the possibility of strategic surprise.”

Burke told the audience that changing the way the Defense Department uses energy at home and abroad is strategically significant.

“In today’s operations, we haul fuel and other supplies across very challenging circumstances in Afghanistan, across difficult terrain and dangerous roads,” she said. “At home, our critical infrastructure, which sustains military operations abroad, depends on the civilian electric grid. … The more that we can lighten that dependence -- whether on the grid, or [by] our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines overseas -- the more resilient we are to that changing strategic landscape.” read more>>>