DoD released its new Operational Energy Strategy Implementation Plan on Friday, which follows from last year’s release of the strategy itself. The plan fleshes out the strategy’s three-pillar approach, reiterating the key energy pathways for a “stronger force:”

• More fight, less fuel: Reduce the demand for energy in military operations.
• More options, less risk: Expand and secure the supply of energy to military operations.
• More capability, less cost: Build energy security into the future force

While certain Republican Congressmen depicted the renewable energy push in the report as “wasteful,” DoD defended the strategy as a way of protecting soldier’s lives and bringing down costs. Sharon Burke, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal, stating:

The No. 1 justification is improved military capability…If you get that, it will lower your risks, so it will save lives, and it should lower your costs.