For those who are not aware -- it is kept relatively quiet -- Department of Defense installations around the United States are, when it comes to electricity, among the greenest of large institutions (that is, at least when it comes to electricity sources). While WholeFoods has committed to 100% wind power purchase for its electricity, few other institutions are that impressive. DOD installations currently get about 8 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. There were plans for increasing this to 25 percent by 2020. The Senate has just passed a measure introduced by Senator Menendez (D-NJ) to put this goal into statue.
It can be surprising what the
DOD is doing re renewables. For example, were you aware that the
Air Force is the largest buyer of green power in the nation according to the EPA?
The U.S. Air Force's green power purchase of 1,066,397 MWh is the largest purchase in the Green Power Partnership and in the country. In fiscal year 2005, the U.S. Air Force purchased over 40 percent of the renewable power purchased by the federal government.
But this seems to be just a sign of the future, as this Senate action would mean a tripling of renewable energy as a percentage of DOD electricity use. Below is the Press release re the action to put into law the 25 percent renewable energy target.
Senate Passes Menendez Amendment To Increase Defense Department Renewable Energy Usage
Amendment sets statutory goal for DoD to acquire 25 percent of electric from renewable sources by 2025
June 22, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today hailed the Senate's passage of his amendment to increase the Department of Defense's consumption of renewable energy - a measure that sets a statutory goal for the department of acquiring 25 percent of its electric from renewable energy sources by the year 2025. The Department of Defense currently acquires over eight percent of its electricity from renewable sources. The Menendez measure, co-sponsored by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), is an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill and was passed Tuesday by the Senate with unanimous consent.
"As the federal government's largest consumer of energy, the Defense Department can be at the vanguard of renewable energy consumption," Menendez said. "The federal government must lead by example if more American businesses and families are to increase their usage of renewable energy."
The Department of Defense is the federal government's most prolific user of electricity, using 55 percent of the government's total consumption. By using renewable sources of electricity, the Defense Department would greatly impact the government's overall demand for electricity. Renewable sources of energy include wind, solar, biomass, landfill gas, ocean, geothermal, municipal solid waste, and new hydroelectric generation capacity.
The Defense Department has made great strides toward increasing its usage of renewable energy sources. In 2005, DOD generated over eight percent of its electricity from renewable sources, and issued an internal memo encouraging the different service branches to pursue a goal of generating - or acquiring - 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. The Menendez amendment codifies this goal.
This is a great step forward and Senator Menendez (and other Democrats) should be commended for pushing this forward. And, now that they have this instituted for DOD, time to get this into law for the entire Federal government.
Check out the Senate Democratic website re Energy Independence 2020. There is a lot of tremendous material in there that most Americans would welcome seeing put into action. Even if I think that they could improve it with material from Energize America 2020 (see the Yearly Kos EA2020 presentation (annotated) where Governor Bill Richardson joined four Kossacks to discuss EA2020.), Energy Independence 2020 would be a tremendous step forward on energy policy.