NAVY ENERGY
CASE STUDY
Challenge
As U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the Clinton Administration, Ray Mabus saw firsthand the financial, environmental and security vulnerabilities caused by dependence on fossil fuels. As Navy Secretary in the Obama Administration, Mabus prioritized shifting Sailors and Marines toward increased usage of renewable fuels to meet the Administration’s national security and environmental objectives. First as senior advisor, then chief of staff to Mabus, Thomas Oppel oversaw development of the strategy, messaging and execution of an energy policy to overcome inertia within the Navy Department and often hostile political opposition to Mabus’ renewable energy focus.
Approach
We emphasized the strategic and financial advantage of renewable fuels, beginning with a major speech in October 2009 outlining five goals for Navy. The most important of those goals was sourcing 50 percent of Navy and Marine Corps energy ashore and afloat by 2020 and the deployment of the “Great Green Fleet,” a Navy strike group, by 2016. Speeches, op-eds and other messaging focused on how oil and gas sales financed our adversaries and the expense to the Navy of those globally priced fuels and defending the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s oil was being shipped, giving outsized influence to the Middle East. We also promoted the economic and qualitative benefits of research into developing renewable fuels, battery storage and other processes.
Outcome
Reporting on Mabus’ October 2009 energy speech highlighted a line Oppel wrote: “If Navy comes, they will build it,” playing off the famous line in Field of Dreams. Despite initial skepticism, the energy initiatives enabled the Navy and Marine Corps to far outpace even Secretary Mabus’ most ambitious goals. Ashore, renewables like solar, wind and geothermal were powering more than half of department facilities by 2016, four years ahead of schedule and saving Navy $400 million. That same year, nuclear and bio-diesel renewables produced 40 percent of Navy and Marine Corps power afloat. In an awesome proof of concept in 2016, a Navy strike group — led by the John C. Stennis aircraft carrier, along with cruisers, destroyers and bio-fueled F-18s —exercised with several international partners also relying on renewables off the coast of Hawaii. While critics who misunderstood the process pounced on the high cost of biodiesel when first purchased in small demonstration quantities, by 2016, the Defense Acquisition Agency was purchasing biodiesel for nearly the same cost as conventional fuel. These actions made the Navy and Marine Corps less susceptible to volatile global fuel prices, as well as negatively impacting Russia which heavily relies on sales of oil and gas.
