America in the 1860s was very different from what it is today. Transportation was a much slower prospect and, frankly, also more dangerous.
A new form of transportation was spreading across the country like wildfire. They called it a “railway”.
The idea of a set of wooden rails and sleepers connecting east and west was simply unfathomable to most, but to some it was not only possible, but profitable.
Communication was also revolutionized when the telegraph was invented in the same time period. The term “millionaire” became widely adopted during this period.
During the 1970s, DARPA, (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), was working on a solution to improve wartime communications and the Internet was conceived.
In virtually every major development we’ve experienced, the US military has played a pioneering role. Just as the railroad and telegraph were in the 1860s and the Internet in the 1970s, the quest for clean energy and alternative fuels is today.
If you want some positive proof of the direction our nation is headed, just take a look at our military.
The largest consumer of fuel in our government is the US military. In 2007, the Department of Defense spent some $12.5 billion on jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline in Afghanistan and Iraq alone. That works out to more than $4 million a day.
These figures are nowhere near complete, as they do not include Navy ships and aircraft, military sealifts, mobility commands, contractors, aerial refueling, and fuel burned in transportation of delivered fuel.
With these types of expenses constantly on the rise, the armed forces are forced to find alternative sources of fuel for their vehicles.
Protecting fuel supply lines is an extremely dangerous task that our soldiers must constantly deal with.
The Pentagon has taken important steps to resolve this potentially dangerous situation.
The US Army has planned to reduce its oil consumption by 11 million gallons a year with the introduction of a fleet of some 4,000 electric vehicles.
Army bases across the country are being equipped with solar panels and wind turbines and aim to become completely electrically self-sufficient in the near future.
Midwestern company Iowa Thin Film Technologies has been working with the US Army to incorporate thin, flexible solar panels that can be placed on top of tents or rolled into a backpack and provide a portable power source.
The US Air Force is now the largest purchaser of clean energy within the Federal Government and has 37 of its bases equipped with renewable energy resources.
The US Navy plans to launch its Great Green Fleet in 2016, a spin-off of Roosevelt’s 1907 Great White Fleet, which will consist of nuclear- or biofuel-powered ships and submarines, and fighter jets. that run entirely on biofuels.
The Navy also plans to convert 50,000 of its commercial vehicles to hybrid electric power by the end of 2015.
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was very convincing when he spoke at the Naval Energy Forum in McLean, Virginia. He said his approach to awarding contracts would be readjusted to favor companies that offer the most energy efficient products. “We will hold industry contractually accountable for meeting energy targets and system efficiency requirements. We will also use a competitor’s overall energy efficiency and energy footprint as an additional factor in procurement decisions,” Mabus said.
As history has recorded the transformations our nation has been blessed to receive, we must never take for granted the role our military has played in the process.
In fact, we should build on their efforts and use their advances in the lives of our friends and family whenever possible.