Quick Event Recap—Power Shift: The US Navy And Global Energy Reform

August 17, 2010 | Posted by: Melissa Chadwick

Yesterday I attended an interesting Climate One/Commonwealth Club event, Power Shift: The US Navy And Global Energy Reform.  United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Maybus, provided some interesting perspective on the Navy’s energy reform efforts and how the organization is trying to position itself as a leader in fostering and implementing conservation best practices.

Maybus discussed goals including reducing the Navy’s energy consumption in half by 2020, sailing a greener fleet by 2016, increasing the number of net-zero base installations, making contracts accountable for meeting energy efficiency goals, and so on.  He also touched on timely topics such as the Navy’s role in the Gulf restoration and aid to international areas such as Pakistan and Afghanistan impacted by climate events.

The discussion also covered interesting topics relevant to the greater cleantech industry as a whole including how to meet energy goals, concerns around up front capital investment and ROI, policy and cost hurdles, job creation and infrastructure barriers.  What I also found particularly interesting was the response to criticism that the US lags behind other countries in areas of policy and research and development.

If you attended the event or have some thoughts to share, I’d love to hear from you to keep the discussion going.