U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Robert G. Sutton (L) and Corporal Moses E. Perez, field wireman with Combat Logistics Regiment 15 install new solar panels on Combat Outpost Shukvani, Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Credit: Quiles/Reuters
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his top advisors have often scoffed at government support of green energy. His chief strategist called it “madness.”
But the largest U.S. government agency – the Department of Defense – plans to forge ahead under the new administration with a decade-long effort to convert its fuel-hungry operations to renewable power, senior military officials told Reuters.
The reasons have nothing to do with the white-hot debate over climate change. In combat zones, green energy saves lives by, for instance, reducing the need for easily attacked convoys to deliver diesel fuel to generators at U.S. bases. Mobile solar-power units allow soldiers to prowl silently through enemy territory.
At sea, gas-electric hybrid battleships save fuel and allow for fewer stops – making them less vulnerable to attacks like the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, when al-Qaeda militants killed […]
How nice that we can kill people while reducing our carbon footprint.
I cannot improve on Mr. Hovland’s comment. The upside at least is the solar industry will continue to experience high demand which will hopefully translate to dollars going into efficiency increases.