Center for a New American Security

Instead of writing a full recap of day one of the Naval Energy Forum, I thought I’d just present the highlights (below) as I Tweeted (Twittered?) them yesterday. You can watch today’s proceedings on the Navy’s website; our own Sharon Burke presents around 10:45 a.m. during a panel discussion on "Greening DON." Many interesting tidbits throughout the day, and noteworthy that they had about 700 attendees and still turned away another 100. These issues are growing concerns for the nation and for the U.S. military, in no small part because of the leadership the Navy has shown. My kudos to all our Navy friends for hosting this forum.

1. RADM Cullom: anticipating lots of littoral growth in Africa + lots of energy trade by sea equals energy is important.
2. RADM Cullom: energy and climate change linked; nod to ADM Titley and task force climate change.
3. RADM Cullom: logistics is an Achilles' heel of ours
4. LtGen W Williams: greatest need in usmc is to change behavior on the battlefield
5. In afghanistan biggest logistical vulnerability is water
6. Radm Leidig: energy, other resources: drivers of future conflict
7. Radm Lemmons: future shipments of ree's akin to moving oil in and out of port today
8. Radm Lemmons: strategic imperative: access, access, access
9. Radm Leidig: cultural change? Need to talk about vulnerabilities to get it.
10. Marine Corps LtGen Williams: don't need to study this thing for eons. We know what the problem is... We're going to attack it
11. VADM McGinn: in a mini-era of cheap oil. Would be a mistake to think it will go on.
12. Sec. Mabus: simply rely too much on...depleting stocks of fossil fuels... We have ceded a strategic resource to other countries
13. Sec. Mabus: goal has got to be increased warfighting capability
14. Sec. Mabus: in every case, adoption of new energy tech has led to a strategic advantage for the country
15. SecMabus announces 5 new energy targets 1) change way navy, usmc award contracts 2) navy to demo green strike group by 2012; sail it by '16
16. 3) Dept of navy reduce petrol by half by 2015 4) dept navy to use half shore energy by alternative sources by 2020
17. 5) Half total energy for vehicles, etc from alt energy sources. And Mabus therefore earns a standing o from the crowd for that list!  [Note: you can read Sec. Mabus’s full speech here.]
18. Albert Davis, DOE: as diff parts of the world become hungry they become unstable, and the navy will have to be there
19. Theme emerging: more coordination with DOE needed
20. Kevin Hurst: OSTP is working on a climate change tech strategy
21. FERC: grid sabotage back in the day used to be teenagers and people stealing copper
22. CNO Roughead: I really do believe that energy is security. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking access is guaranteed for future
23. CNO: before depletion occurs, prices of nonrenewable energy will climb
24. CNO: can't deny link between oil and climate change
25. CNO: need to verify the investments that we're making, that we're getting something out of it.
26. CNO: sailors are 1st and foremost leaders, and we can lead in this area.
27. Gen Conway: 3rd speaker to taut 29 palms energy projects
28. Gen. Conway: gives them B/B+ on energy; not doing very well in expeditionary capabilities - where we're the most inefficient
29. Conway: Purifying water in Afghanistan can potentially take 50 trucks per week off the road
30. Conway: over 15,000 gallons of fuel per day can be saved in generator efficiency
31. Conway: Marines sending implementation team in as follow up to energy/water assessment team!
32. Conway: Our contractors are not going to help us on this. Their interest is not for us to be more efficient.