Yes you read that right : the United States Army will spend $7.1 billion (around five billion euros) on renewable energy sources during the next ten years. The goal is to have 25 percent of renewables in their energy mix by 2025.
As GreenTech Media notes : ” Secretary of the Army John McHugh today announced the creation of the Energy Initiatives Office, which will help the massive government agency centrally plan and deploy renewable energy projects. “
Meanwhile, Republican candidates – like Perry and Bachmann – to the elections next year are getting more and more virulent against the protection of the environment and cleantech.
Interesting post.
But GreenTech didn’t mention if it refered to the US Army budget or to the DoD Budget, which is very different: +/- $250 bn vs $693 bn, in 2010.
A $7.1 bn budget over ten years and compared to the overall US Defence budget for the same period of time seems small. But it’s a start and US DoD is good at R&D and implementation of new technologies.
I think the most interesting part is not about the money, it’s about their dedication to going “green”…
Seeing how much money and how many lives they lose in oil transportation on the battlefield make them look for alternatives.
I previously noted they spend 20 billion USD in A/C in Iraq and Afghanistan alone… That makes a lot of reason to think differently :/
meat and money, the driving forces behind the machinery…if saving lives and finances is a strong enough motivator–then–why not produce everything from renewable sources?
beginning with energy production to innovating clean tech..the scrub the wasteful mentality which has allowed so must destructive practice to escalate for years..
one step at a time–a petits pas, on y va..
Thanks Nadine for your comment ! 🙂
Renewables, efficiency, sobriety… You nailed it ! 🙂
There is so much to do however, I am not so sure we can go one step at a time… We need to leap…
Anyway, let’s stay optimistic 🙂