Dod: Pursuing Alternative Energy Conservation and Finding Essay

DOD: Pursuing Alternative Energy

Energy conservation and finding an appropriate energy solution is something that impacts nearly every field and profession, and is an issue which directly impacts the Department of Defense in a constant and lasting manner. The Department of Defense has a responsibility to aggressively pursue alternative energy solutions, namely in the form of biofuels, just as they aggressively pursue the latest updates in technological warfare. In order for the Department of Defense to engage in their basic activities for defense and promoting safety while maintaining security, they need to be able to spend energy. The expenditure of energy is a foundational pillar of what the Department of Defense does. In this day and age, professionals of every field are simply too smart, too educated and too knowledgeable to continue to expend energy in the typical manner -- a manner which is non-renewable and which destroys the planet. There is an aggravated impetus to embrace green energy and rightly so.

The Department of Defense has a staggeringly high acquisition of fuel, so much so, that there's really no excuse or compelling reason to not examine biofuels as aggressively as possible. "DOD is by some accounts the largest organizational user of petroleum in the world. DOD consumed about 117 million barrels of oil in 2011."

DOD has such an extreme dependence on standard fuel strongly connects to the possibility of increasing costs for fuel in the long run and an overall lack of stability because of the volatility in fuel prices. The prediction that fuel costs will increase in the long-term is a real one. The DOD has executed costs for petroleum which have risen significantly and steadily over the last seven years: "Between FY2005 and FY2011, DOD's petroleum use decreased 4%, from 122 million barrels to 117 million barrels (see Figure 2). Over the same period, DOD spending on petroleum rose 381% in real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) terms, from $4.5 billion in FY2005 (in FY2011 dollars) to about $17.3 billion in FY2011.42."

There's no excuse for such a tremendous increase in energy costs; furthermore, there's absolutely no indication that the costs will be reduced in the future in any shape or form. Using history as a guide, costs will continue to increase meaning that the Department of Defense will not be economically feasible anymore. This expenditure is now becoming irresponsible; in trying to finance the defense of the nation, the Department of Defense is in a sense draining the funds of the nation, and putting the entire country into a state of instability, which is the opposite of what it is supposed to be achieving.

Aside from rampant financial irresponsibility, the reliance of DOD on foreign fuels also creates a state where there is a sense of dependence -- which is not good for the state of the nation. Thus, the Pentagon is moving forward with a $420 million effort to make refineries which will help market competitively priced biofuels.

Some politicians disagree with this move, saying that it squanders precious dollars of the budget and reflects completely skewed priorities; however, this couldn't be more wrong. One expert warns, "…that U.S. dependence on foreign oil is a strategic vulnerability that can only be addressed by reducing the military's reliance on petroleum as the sole source of fuel to power its jets, ships and tanks. The Navy initiative announced on Monday to help private firms build biofuel refineries 'will enhance our national security.'"

This is absolutely true: spending all of this money now on biofuels will help the nation and the department of defense spends less money in the years to come. This move needs to be seen as an investment in helping the development of commercial viability for the defense department. The Navy in this respect is very much leading the way…