Last month, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus committed to making the US Navy a “green fleet” – by 2020, 50% of all energy consumed by the USN will be supplied by renewable energy sources. To that end the Navy will expand its use of hybrid vehicles, solar and wind, and perhaps even pave the way for [...]

A recent Pew study indicates that climate change has been losing its luster. In every category, from age, political leanings, region, and education, people are increasingly skeptical about the science behind global warming. According to the study, between April 2008 and October 2009 there was a notable decline in people who believe global warming is [...]

If you haven’t read Thomas Friedman’s op-ed piece today, do. It outlines the sorry state of the American solar industry, focusing on the U.S. company Applied Materials. Of its 14 solar panel factories worldwide, “not a single one is in America… five are in Germany, four are in China, one is in Spain, one is [...]

As the US lumbers on in debate over renewable energy reform, the PRC is moving forward to become the world’s biggest contender in the solar energy market. Boosted by generous government subsidies, bountiful cheap labor and an ever-increasing demand for green energy, Chinese companies like Suntech are gradually overtaking their American and German competitors.
This may [...]

IBM has released a report warning of huge risks posed to the global utilities sector by climate change. According to the report, “90% of utilities around the world know they are at risk from climate change but fewer than a third said they have performed any financial review of the possible impacts on their business.”
IBM [...]

Admiral Gunn’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as submitted to the record, is posted here.

Readers of this blog will quickly see that people are starting to take the national security dimensions of energy and climate change seriously.  I want to add to the discussion by trying to bring the issue closer to home.  Let me focus on three issues that are clear and present dangers from America’s current energy [...]

In case you missed it, there was a great piece by Alexandra Zavis in the Boston Globe on May 3, “Going green becomes a matter of national security.”
In it, Zavis details how the military is, in many respects, leading the way on climate and energy security–not simply because military leaders say so, but because it [...]

The Washington Post this morning has a story about the Obama Administration’s plans to buy 17,600 American cars for government use, including “2,500 hybrid sedans, the largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles to date for the federal fleet.”
There’s more to the initiative, apparently, than just hybrids:
Each vehicle must have a better fuel economy rating than [...]

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