General Wesley Clark On the Next Military Mission: Solar Energy

Forbes magazine ran a thoughtful piece today from Wesley Clark, retired Army General and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO. Clark details the military case for fully embracing solar energy, touching on the strategic benefits for the United States of moving away from centralized fossil fuel infrastructures, the cost benefits already realized, and the scale of emissions reductions that would result. In making the case for why the Department of Defense is, and should continue to be, a leader in this space, he states:

·     U.S. military operations represent the largest consumer of all forms of energy globally.

·     Our troops in Afghanistan pay the equivalent of $400 per gallon of fossil fuel when security, transportation and mortality costs are tallied up, with the largest expense being battlefield electricity generation.

·     Here at home, virtually all military bases including Fort Irwin here in the California desert are shifting to solar energy in order to develop a more secure, on-site power supply that will increase resiliency and reduce dependence upon imports of fossil fuels from hostile countries.

Click here for the full article.