WASHINGTON — Investing in renewable energy technology for military bases would save the Department of Defense billions of dollars and ensure operational integrity as bases increasingly provide support to combat troops, a group of Pentagon officials told Congress Wednesday.
At a time when the president and Congress are looking for ways to reduce the nation’s budget, the military spends more than $4 billion a year on energy for bases and on fuel for transportation, said Dorothy Robyn, the deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment.
Military bases are providing more support to combat troops than ever before from analyzing intelligence in real-time to flying unmanned aerial vehicles, Robyn told a House military subcommittee. Base capabilities must be kept operational, she said, but bases sometimes rely on local electrical grids which are vulnerable to attack and disruption.
Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, wrote in an editorial last month that although energy efficiency is often considered an environmental issue, “it is first and foremost a national security issue.”
Assistant Air Force Secretary Terry Yonkers said all service branches are looking at ways to power vehicles with synthetic fuels and that the Air Force is trying to cut fuel use by recalculating its flight paths and cargo payloads. He said the Air Force has a goal of reducing energy usage by 10 percent, saving an estimated $700 million a year.
As the world’s single largest consumer of energy, the military has a responsibility to take the lead in “greening the government,” said Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J. He noted the Defense Department already has set goals to get 7.5 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2013 and 25 percent by 2025.
Increasing energy efficiency may be the focus of the next wave of base construction after the current Base Realignment and Closure deadline of September. Army, Air Force and Navy officials said their branches are on pace to meet the deadline, but said they do not foresee any more BRAC programs in the near future.
The military is also looking at new technology to cut costs in other areas, Robyn said.
The military spends $17 billion annually on disposing of unexploded ordinances on land. The high cost comes in part, she said, because the current technology is not effective at finding where the ordinances are.
“We have not had the technology to distinguish between bombs and beer cans,” Robyn said.
She estimated that improved detection technology is being tested and could save at least $10 billion.