Using resources efficiently to create real, lasting security is at the core of RMI's mission. A number of the Institute's landmark studies have questioned what energy security really means and advanced "end-use/least-cost" thinking in military affairs.
With the United States engaged in two wars and global fuel costs spiraling out of control, the need for this kind of thinking could not be more urgent.
To help push these ideas forward and translate them for the military, RMI turned to summer fellow Drew Sloan.
Sloan is currently undertaking a dual masters program at Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of International Relations. He graduated near the top of his class at West Point, and served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where he suffered multiple injuries in an attack on his Humvee.
Both of these deployments convinced Sloan the military needs to rethink how it uses energy. His work and ideas will be included in an upcoming paper focused towards high-level military leaders
Convoys and Supply Chains
Many convoys in Iraq are used to transport oil. But transporting that fuel makes soldiers more vulnerable to attack and to improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Instead of transporting more fuel so military vehicles can use it more efficiently, Sloan reasoned, a more effective way to avoid IEDs isn't to defend an inherently unwieldy and vulnerable convoy, but to avoid driving on the road in the first place.
In fact, every mission or weapon comes with an associated "tail" of support that can hamper its effectiveness.
A standard Humvee requires a light vehicle mechanic and an intricate logistics system --manned by thousands of personnel and containing countless warehouses and storage depots. To think of the Humvee as a standalone piece of equipment overlooks the costly and vulnerable support chain needed to sustain it.
Essentially, if thousands are used to move fuel and thousands more used to guard it, how many fewer soldiers does that mean are left to carry out the actual fighting?
In this sense, Sloan argues, the military would be best served by a system that still focuses on the bite, but with far less of a supply chain needed to sustain it.
Distributed Energy
But the military can go much further than retooling its supply chain -- rethinking, for instance, how to deploy distributed energy sources.
In Iraq, Sloan witnessed the aftermath of several attacks on central generators. One huge generator in particular, which Sloan and his peers referred to as "the MOAG" — Mother Of All Generators — was constantly targeted and largely unreliable.
Sloan found that Afghanistan contained even less energy infrastructure than Iraq. Often soldiers would be deployed in remote areas where "literally all you see is sand."
On one such mission, a prolonged sandstorm shut down air operations out of the U.S. base in Kandahar, accentuating the isolation. Sloan remembers reporting that his unit was nearly "black" on fuel and water, an indication that they did not have the capabilities to sustain themselves on long-range missions. In fact, his unit had to curtail certain portions of the mission to ensure they would have enough fuel to make it safely back to base.
Thankfully the weather lifted, but the experience made Sloan wary of his heavy reliance on faraway bases for resupply.
Getting the Military and U.S. Off Oil
All these incidents suggest that, like the rest of the world, spending money on oil is a cost we can no longer afford to pay. It's not just the $13 billion the U.S. Department of Defense spends on fuel each year, but the cost of lives and resources that are required to transport, secure, and defend it.
The military is in an ideal position to lead the nation in finding solutions to these compounding problems. With a long history of advancing technology and jumpstarting industries, the U.S. military can push forward advances in energy efficiency so that we no longer have to fight over oil we don't need in the first place.
RMI cofounder and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins is honored to have someone with Sloan's experience and passion leading this work.
"Somehow, Drew came out of [his service] with all his sparkle and resilience intact," says Lovins.
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