No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
During the Pearl Harbor raid that opened the Pacific War - perhaps the world's first energy war - Hickam Army Air Force base was among the initial targets attacked by Japanese fighters and dive-bombers.
1 See Charles Maechling, “Pearl Harbor: The First Energy War,” History Today, 12, 2000.
2 It is now part of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam.
3 On the test and its implications, see Robert K Ackerman, “Military Enters SPIDERS Web,” SIGNAL, February 2012.
4 On this, see Sandia National Laboratories, “SPIDERS,” which describes the project as well as the broader goal of diffusing the technology through the governmental and civilian sectors.
5 This concern has a long trajectory. Among major statements along the way, see the October 2005 report of The National Academy of Sciences, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future”. See also PEW Charitable Trusts, “Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race? Growth, Competition and Opportunity in the World's Largest Economies,” 2010.
6 These “Merchants of Doubt” (Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway, 2010) clearly delayed the introduction of climate legislation such as carbon trading. See also Susan Goldberg, “Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks,” The Guardian, February 14, 2013 (link). But as I propose to show in this and subsequent work, the opposition of vested interests and their political agents, in the face of overwhelming evidence of mounting damage and the need to act very fast, appears to have facilitated institutional agreements among US federal agencies, the military, the scientific community, and other important actors. What we see underway in America may be more effective than carbon trading, carbon taxes, even feed-in tariffs and other policies for diffusing renewable while driving their costs down. America's evolving approach has the potential to accelerate technical developments in renewables while enveloping their diffusion in a regime that also prioritizes efficiency and conservation. But this technocratically-led effectiveness might come at the cost of equity and broader participation, concentrating power in the military and sapping the energy and initiative of the grassroots.
7 To envision the melding of IT, energy and biotech, consider the example of organic LED lighting whose output is adjusted by IT sensors to vary according to ambient light levels, whether someone is in the room, and the like. Conventional lighting represents roughly 20% of global power consumption, so the fruits of such advanced LED efficiency just in terms of their power-conservation effect. And the use of new materials in their production implies opportunities as impossible to predict as, say, the evolution of the 1990s mobile phone into a camera, credit card, music player and the like through the internet (a technology developed through military demand, let us not forget).
8 Students of Chalmers Johnson's work will recall his work on the US military's role is “garrisoning the planet” (link) as well as in understanding the role of political economy and a pilot agency in Japan's rise. There is much irony in watching the US military teach an uninterested METI the arts of energy- environmental industrial policy
9 On this, see Andrew DeWit, “Abenomics and the Political Economy of Energy Efficiency in Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11 Issue 6 No 2, February 11, 2013.
10 The Energy Watch Group undertook a 2010 analysis of global fuel and electricity costs, and determined them to be somewhere between USD 5.5 trillion and 7.5 trillion in 2008. See Energy Watch Group, “Worldwide Estimated Yearly Energy Costs,” March 24, 2008.
11 The Worldwatch Institute summarizes the health costs in its “Fossil Fuel and Renewable Energy Subsidies on the Rise”
12 At least 80% if one calculates for Annex 1 countries in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (link). See also p. 18 of IEA “CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion: Highlights,” 2011 edition. Carbon Dioxide emission alone totaled 31.78 gigatonnes in 2010 (link).
13 Bloomberg New Energy Finance “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2012” determines that investment in renewable power and fuels totaled USD 257 billion in 2011, with US investment leaping 57% (to USD 51 billion) in the year to the head of the national ranks (link). See also the recent study by the Advanced Energy Economy institute, suggesting that as a global market per se (ie, not merely investment), advanced energy totaled USD 1 trillion in 2011 and that the US had USD 132 billion of that with a growth rate estimated at 19%. The study is described and downloadable at the institute's press release, Advanced Energy Economy, “Advanced Energy Represents $1 Trillion Global Market, New Study Shows,” January 15, 2013.
14 The most recent assessment is the market research firm SBI Energy's estimate that the global energy efficiency market in 2012 totaled USD 595.4 billion, but that by 2023 the overall market for efficiency products and services will reach USD 3.3 trillion. See SBI “Energy Efficiency Global Products and Services Markets” (December 3, 2012). The SBI Energy study's results are also broadly consistent with assessments done in a range of areas, and by such reputed agencies as Pike Research.
15 On human energy consumption and its effects, see Guang J. Zhang, Ming Cai and Aixue Hu, “Energy Consumption and the unexplained winter warming over northern Asia and North America,” Nature Climate Change, January 27, 2013. On the earth's heat flux, see “Heat Flow. Heat Geration,” Virtual Upper Mantle of the Earth.
16 Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen related this well in an October 13, 2010, interview. He noted that in the 1960s and his shipmates “operated under a ‘burn it if you got it’ mentality…we just operated under the very conventional view that fuel was cheap, easy and available without ever really connecting it to any broader geopolitical implications,” in Lisa Daniel, “Mullen: Military Has ‘Strategic Imperative’ to Save Resources,” American Forces Press Service, October 13, 2010.
17 The Economist has a useful graphic on this cost structure. See “Military Spending: Defence Costs,” June 8, 2011.
18 The “tether of fuel” is generally depicted in terms of logistical supply lines, but also incorporates this larger strategic dimension. For a concise and readable account of the logistics aspect, see David Roberts, “US military kicks more ass by using less fossil-fuel energy,” Grist, May 21, 2012.
19 For a cogent assessment of China's strategic perspective, see Robert Wade, “The Island Dispute Between China and Japan: The Other Side of the Story,” Triple Crisis: Global Perspectives on Finance, Development, and Environment, February 15, 2013.
20 On the “water-food-energy nexus,” see the succinct discussion by SABMiller Senior VP for Sustainable Development Andy Wales, “What is the Water-Food-Energy Nexus?” February 27, 2013.
21 Put this in text? See Gail Reitenbach, “The US Military Gets Smart Grid,” Power, January 1, 2012.
22 On this background, see ACORE, “US Department of Defe3nse and Renewable Energy: An Industry Helping the Military Meet its Strategic Energy Objectives,” January, 2012.
23 The DOD's “Energy for the Warfighter: Operational Energy Strategy,” report to Congress for May 2011 describes for example cooperation with the El Salvadorean military to install a solar-power facility. The report notes that “Alternative energy supplies also have the potential to improve partner nation capabilities, including in the civilian sector.” See p. 8.
Note also that the UK and Australian militaries are increasingly interested in renewables energy and efficiency as a direct result of cooperation with the US military.
24 More than anything, avoiding catastrophic climate change requires a radical programme of energy conservation and efficiency in the coming few years. No miraculous inventions are required for this. Rather, what is crucial is fast and deliberate action that overcomes informational, behavioural and other barriers that impede the diffusion of conservation and efficiency. Ironically - and our era is rich in ironies - the US military is perhaps best positioned to start an avalanche because the nature of commands and discipline mean the military is far more effective at reaching and implementing decisions than is civil society. On the scope for efficiency and conservation, see Andrew DeWit, “Abenomics and the Political Economy of Energy Efficiency in Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11 Issue 6 No 2, February 11, 2013.
25 See for example, Brian Dumaine, “Can the Navy really go green?”, CNN Money, August 28, 2012.
26 One memorable article reported in detail on Inhofe's 2002-2005 history of lobbying for biofuels development for his home state of Oklahoma. See Marcus Stern, “A critic of costly biofuels, US lawmaker once secured funds for them,” Reuters, August 7, 2012.
27 The stress on “sustainable” is deliberate. The Navy purchased algal and chicken-fat derived biofuels rather than bioethanol produced from corn or other food crops. Elements of the military are quite aware of the depth of the sustainability crisis we collectively confront. See, for example, William S Becker interview with former special strategic assistant to the Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, in “Fewer Swords, More Plowshares: A Marine Rethinks Defense,” Natural Capitalism Solutions, January 24, 2013.
28 A very readable account can be found in Julia Whitty, “Inside the Military's Clean-Energy Revolution,” Mother Jones, March/April 2013. Note also that Mother Jones, Slate and The Atlantic are collaborating on reporting on military greening as well as other important environmental initiatives and challenges. Some of this excellent work can be found here.
29 See for example Adam Weinstein, “How the Military Repelled the GOP's Biofuel Attack,” Mother Jones, March/April 2013.
30 See for example Government Accountability Office, “Renewable Energy Project Financing: Improved Guidance and Information Sharing Needed for DOD Project-Level Officials,” GAO-12-401, April 4, 2012.
31 Given the history of the concept of the “military-industrial complex,” stretching all the way back to Eisenhower's 1961 usage, it is strange that the military's core role in sustainability initiatives has been overlooked. But among other astute observers of the military's role in “sustainment,” see AnneMarie Slaughter's preface to “A National Strategic Narrative,” by Mr Y, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2011.
32 The increasing scale is fascinating. For example, collaboration between the Department of the Interior and DOD has helped to open up millions of acres of US federal land to renewable power generation on DOD facilities (Jessica Lillian, “Military Lands Opened up to Solar Development Under CrossAgency Effort,” Solar Industry, August 7, 2012). One indicator of the significance of this development is seen in drought-stricken Texas’ dire need for power generation but obligation to close dirty capacity. On this see, John Frank, “Texas Military Bases Could Offer Timely Relief to ERCOT's Power Grid as EPA Rulings May Force Shutdown of 1300 MW's by Early 2012,” Energybiz, November 16, 2011.
33 On the Sputnik scare and DARPA's achievements, see “DARPA at 50,” Homeland Security Newswire, May 16, 2008. Note that then-President Dwight Eisenhower set the agency up as the Advance Research Projects Agency, explicitly in order to “prevent technological surprises.”
34 ARPA-E also got “a staggering 3,700 concept papers” in response to its initial call for submissions. It expected about 500 to 800. On the agency, see Varun Mehra, “ARPA-E is Here to Stay,” Science Progress, January 22, 2013.
35 See Mehra, ibid. The “valley of death” refers to the lack of finance to carry a project from idea to prototype.
36 The SERDP's home page.
37 The ESTCP's home page.
38 On this, see Maura Goldstein, “A Lean, Green Fighting Machine? Part 1: The Regulatory Risk Posed by the Army's Renewables Initiative,” Electric Energy T&D Magazine, January-February, 2013, Issue 1, Volume 17. Goldstein highlights intergovernmental regulatory problems whose resolution poses challenges to the programme architects’ creativity with carrots and sticks.
39 The Army is, for example, working with General Motors in Hawaii to diffuse the infrastructure for fuel-cell cars whose hydrogen is generated by solar energy. On this point and other items, see Tina Casey, “US Army Makes Progress on Vehicle Fleet Efficiency,” TriplePundit,” February 11, 2013.
40 The programme is described at the SERDP page. Note also the “view featured projects” link at the bottom of the page, where the SERDP describe what they are testing, where, and with whom (ie, the lead organization). The projects are further detailed via individual links. See here.
41 On this, see Jason Ye and Stephen Seidel, “Leading By Example: Using Information and Communication Technologies to Achieve Federal Sustainability Goals,” Center For Climate and Energy Solutions, September 2012. See also “Report: NASA, DOD, GSA Use Information Technology to Cut Energy Use,” Environmental Leader, September 25, 2012.
42 See “DOD, DOE launch initial talks on aligning clean energy research efforts,” Clean Energy Report, November 5, 2012.
43 Kjell Aleklett's deconstruction of the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2012 (WEO 2012) makes for fascinating reading. Note especially his analysis of the still-unexplained changes in the IEA's projection of Saudi oil production going from 22.5 million barrels per day in 2025 (in WEO 2004) to 10.8 million barrels in 2025 (WEO 2012). And keep in mind that the IEA's projections drive most government's energy policymaking. See Kjell Aleklett, “An Analysis of World Energy Outlook 2012.”
44 Among other notable work done by US military think tanks, see the 2007 CNAS report “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change”
45 See PR Newswire, Integration, Demand Response, and Mission-Critical Security,” January 14, 2013.
46 On Wellinhof's comments concerning distributed power, see here. On the FERC's January 17, 2013 rule changes potentially boosting distributed power, see here.
47 On this, see Nathanael Massey, “Renewable surged in 2012, according to FERC report,” Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition News, January 24, 2013.
48 See here. One of these is James Momoh, Sakis Meliopoulos, and Robert Saint, “Centralized and Distributed Power Systems: A Comparison Approach,” PSERC Publication 12-08, April 16, 2012:
49 On this, see PennEnergy's “Why distributed power is crucial,” January 31, 2013.
50 The US military composes 16.5% of Hawaiian employment. For a fascinating and very recent treatment of the military's role in building renewables in Hawaii, see Scott Cooney, “Military Drives Alternative Energy in Hawaii,” Hawaii Business, January 2013.
51 Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment Katherine Hammack noted in a July 1 2012 talk that “in the wake of the March 2011 tsunami in Japan, all military bases and major industries that run largely off nuclear power plants were asked to reduce their energy consumption by 15 percent. She said that within two weeks and through behavioral change, Army bases had reduced their energy consumption 18 percent and by summer's end, consumption was down by 23 percent.” See J.D. Leipold “Behavioural changes hold key to energy efficiency throughout Army,” Army News Services, July 31, 2012.
You have
Access
Open access