Great Green Fleet lowers worry about defense budget cuts

March 11, 2013
Taking threats seriously about the security implications of automatic spending cuts would be easier if US military leaders always acted serious about security.

Taking threats seriously about the security implications of automatic spending cuts would be easier if US military leaders always acted serious about security.

They don't seem serious when they push boondoggles such as the Navy's Great Green Fleet.

The sequester lowers defense spending by $454 billion over 10 years. Opponents worry about the consequences for national defense.

Their concern is proper. But last summer's demonstration of the Great Green Fleet demonstrated mainly that defense budgets have too much fat.

Other branches of the military have programs to use renewable energy in place of oil and natural gas. The Navy's is just the showiest.

The generals and admirals say their initiative would assure the war machine of fuel in emergencies, insulate military budgets from swings in oil prices, and advance the technology of renewable energy.

Those arguments are bogus. The military claims a small share of US and global supply and will always have oil when it needs it. Changes in oil prices change prices of alternative fuels, too. And development of renewable energy is not the military's mission.

Military leaders should know all this. They also should show more appreciation for security's financial dimension.

At the time of the Great Green Fleet demonstration last July, the ballyhooed renewable energy was reported to have cost four times as much as the fossil energy it replaced in a carrier strike group. A Department of Defense study estimates the Navy would spend $2.2 billion/year more on energy if it met its goals for renewable energy.

Money spent for unsound reasons on noncommercial energy is money not spent on armor and bullets. It thus detracts from national security.

Renewable-energy programs represent a small part of the whacks defense will sustain as the sequester takes effect. But they illustrate a tendency to throw money at illusory problems and a failure to see how waste degrades defense.

The Great Green Fleet and programs like it are bright red targets in military budgets. More such targets surely exist.