Fuel-Thirsty U.S. Navy Pledges 50% Cut in Oil Use by 2020, and More

The United States Navy is taking a big leap forward in "greening" its 50,000-strong, gas-guzzling fleet of vehicles, committing to a 50 percent cut in oil use by 2015, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus declared in a speech at the Naval Energy Forum.

That's not all. Mabus said the Navy will attempt to get 50 percent of its total energy from alternative sources by 2020, including its ships, aircraft, tanks, vehicles and bases. Currently, that figure is at 17 percent.

The reason: The Navy's imported oil addiction is socking the service with billions of dollars in losses. The Navy's new "hybrid of the seas," the USS Makin Island (pictured above), is expected to yield $250 million in savings over its lifetime, Mabus said. The ship has an electric motor that kicks in at low speeds. The money-saving hybrid-electric systems will soon be installed on 12 vessels.

The same is true for planes. Improving the efficiency of each aircraft by just 3 percent would save the Navy 127,000 barrels of fuel per plane, per year. That's $15 million per aircraft, annually, at today's fuel prices.

What it boils down is that the geopolitics of petroleum has gotten costly. The numbers don't lie:

"It turns out that when you factor in the cost of transportation to a coastal facility in Pakistan – or airlifting it to Kandahar – and then you add the cost of putting it in a truck, guarding it, delivering it to the battlefield, and then transferring that one gallon into a piece of equipment that needs it – in extreme cases that gallon of gasoline could cost up to $400," Mabus said.

But the secretary made it clear that the Navy's new energy shift is not all about cash; global warming is also becoming a national security risk.

"The carbon that's emitted from our ships, aircraft, and vehicles is a contributor to global warming and climate change. According to the projections endorsed by our own Task Force on Climate Change, global warming could result in an Arctic Ocean free of summer ice within 25 years. The security implications of this are dramatic. In short, we have not acted as very responsible stewards of our environment."

In addition to the above targets, the secretary laid out three other goals to help change the Navy's fossil fuel ways:

Energy Efficiency: The Navy and Marine Corps will mandate that the "lifetime energy cost" of a building or system, and the cost of fuel for powering it, will be factored in when awarding contracts.

The Great Green Fleet: By 2012, the Navy will demonstrate a "Green Strike Group" in its heaviest military load. By 2016, it will sail and deploy the group as a "Great Green Fleet," composed of nuclear ships, surface combatants equipped with hybrid electric alternative power systems running biofuel, and aircraft flying only on biofuels.

50 Percent Renewable Energy in 10 Years on Bases: The Navy will boost its use of renewable energy and, in some cases, supply power to the grid from solar, wind, ocean and geothermal sources generated by the bases. The Navy is already doing this in California at China Lake, where on-base systems generate 20 times the load of the base.

The secretary said the Navy's embrace of new energy will ripple through the U.S. government, the nation and the world for decades with lasting effect.

"Altering the Department of the Navy’s consumption patterns will have a broad, noticeable effect and will serve as an example for the rest of our country. The technologies we sponsor, the technologies that we fund, and the technologies that we develop to viability will be those that the United States and the world will use in decades to come," Mabus said.

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