Protecting the electric system from cyber threats and ensuring its resilience are vital to our national security and economic well-being.  This is exactly why cybersecurity is one of four key themes in the White House’s Policy Framework for a 21st Century Grid. For obvious reasons, the private sector shares our interest in a safe and secure electric grid. The Administration has benefited from working closely with industry, including to develop the Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity, released by the Department of Energy last September.

To continue that close cooperation, last week Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman and I, along with senior officials from Department of Homeland Security, hosted industry leaders to discuss a new initiative to further protect the electric grid from cyber risks. This initiative — the Electric Sector Cybersecurity Risk Maturity Model Pilot — is a new White House initiative led by the Department of Energy, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, to develop a model to help us identify how secure the electric grid is from cyber threats and test that model with participating utilities. Gaining knowledge about strengths and remaining gaps across the grid will better inform investment planning and research and development, and enhance our public-private partnership efforts.

I was encouraged to see an impressive number of electric sector leaders participating and sharing their views with us. Their high level of interest in this new effort reaffirmed for me that these stakeholders share our desire to better understand the strengths and remaining gaps across the sector, so that together we can continue to take concrete steps to protect the electric grid from cyber threats.

We look forward to continued cooperation with our partners in industry to ensure this initiative builds on industry efforts and becomes a meaningful tool to create a modern, secure electric grid that carries us through the 21st century.

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Bill Moore, editor of EVWorld.com has written a splendid article on the failure of certain of the early electric vehicle companies, in which he points out:

Breaking into the automotive business can be relatively easy; making a success of it is pretty damned near impossible, regardless of what type of propulsion system you favor: ICE-age or otherwise; and it’s especially tough if you decide to go electric. Beyond this, the reasons for individual failures are myriad and multiple: right product, wrong time, wrong product; wrong time, etc. Management missteps, unrealistic investor expectations and impatience, government responsiveness, inept marketing, unanticipated technical setbacks, product shortcomings, public resistance to change: the list is long.

I don’t dispute any of this, but let’s look at the subject from a “big picture” perspective. As a country, we’re still married to fossil fuels, and we’re doing essentially nothing about it In particular, we have no energy policy. Hell, we’re about to build an oil pipeline, the Keystone XL, right through the middle of the continent, one that may be unnecessary and that even some oil companies think is overpriced.

At the same time, we don’t have an iota of horsepower in Congress examining the big ideas. If I (or you) were there, we’d be saying:

Here’s a list of major reasons (I’ve left out the minor ones) to phase out fossil fuels aggressively:

• National security / terrorism

• Health / lung disease

• Global climate change, ocean acidification and other ecological disasters

• Skyrocketing / crippling debt

• War which we can’t afford, and leave countless dead and wounded

• Peak oil, coupled with burgeoning urban/consumer populations globally

You can argue about the relative importance of each of these, but for my money, we’ve spent enough time arguing about this garbage already. Now the time has come for action, and we’re going to take it, regardless of what the oil companies say. We have a responsibility at this time and place in history, and by God, we’re going to live up to it.

Gullible guy that I am, I still believe that someone in a position of power will ask me to draft a plan that phases fossil fuels out forcibly over the next 25 years, and eliminates them completely by 2050. As always, I’ll be happy to serve.

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Yesterday, President Obama announced that our Departments will jointly invest $510 million over the next three years to develop the domestic capacity for advanced biofuels.  The funds will be leveraged with at least a one-to-one private industry match to construct or retrofit advanced biofuel plants to produce drop-in aviation and marine biofuels that will power our military’s ships and aircraft and our commercial transportation fleet.  For the first time, our Departments’ efforts have been put behind a single project to help create the new energy future and new energy economy set out in the President’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future (pdf) issued this March.

As the President said yesterday at the White House Rural Economic Forum in Iowa, “We're going to do more to speed the development of next-generation biofuels, and we’re going to promote renewable energy and conservation.”

Creation of a domestic biofuels market will:

* Create jobs and economic opportunity. By building or retrofitting biofuel refineries, we will create economic opportunity in rural America in the construction, refining, and in the industries that provide the feedstocks. Every year, the United States spends over $300 billion on imported crude oil. As the American biofuel market grows, more and more of that investment will be made here, in our rural communities, for our country.
* Improve our national security by reducing reliance on foreign oil. Today our military forces depend far too much on fossil fuels. This dependency creates strategic and tactical vulnerabilities to military operations and, as we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, it affects the safety and security of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines in combat. One in every fifty convoys in Afghanistan results in an American service member guarding that convoy becoming a casualty. Creating home grown sources of alternative fuels will improve our national security.
* Demonstrate advanced technologies and American ingenuity. Our scientists and engineers are the best in the world, and through creation of a biofuel market, we will support the development of a new, rural-focused industry to replace imported crude oil with secure, renewable fuels made right here in the United States.

This is a step forward. Soon, our Departments will engage private industry in this initiative to create opportunities for rural America, make our nation more secure, and create a new energy future and new energy economy for our country.

Article by Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture and Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy.

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Having served in the military, I’m intimately aware of the role that energy plays in our ability to defend and uphold our national security. This became apparent to me in many ways during my time in the field, to the safety of my unit who ran fuel supply convoys in theater and the dangers we faced in carrying our duties, to hearing about the economic struggles of my relatives and friends back home to afford gas to drive and heat their homes. We understand, perhaps better than anyone, that our pursuit of energy independence and national security are closely linked.

I also know the struggles faced by many Veterans once they leave the service and try to find quality work. Last year for example, the unemployment rate for veterans who served after September 11th was 11.5% compared to 9.4% unemployment amongst non-veterans. Potential employers don’t always understand the value and experience that Veterans can bring to the workforce. And in some cases, it’s difficult for Veterans to express how the jobs we were trained to do in the military are transferable to jobs on the outside. Veterans have the skills, knowledge, leadership and professionalism to excel in any number of fields – including the energy sector. We simply need a bridge to join the wider workforce and contribute to the jobs of the future.

This week, Secretary Chu joined the Edison Electric Institute and the Center for Energy Workforce Development as they announced a new program that will help bridge that divide and increase opportunities for Veterans in the energy sector. “Troops to Energy Jobs” brings together public, non-profit and private sector partners in a pilot program that will provide transitional career training and counseling to help Veterans enter the workforce and get jobs in the energy industry.

A partnership program like “Troops to Energy Jobs” is a great first step in the direction of helping solve the critical problem of Veterans unemployment in this country. The program will be managed by the Center for Energy Workforce Development, a non-profit group of electric, natural gas and nuclear utility companies. The Energy Department will contribute to this partnership through the National Training Education Resource Center (NTER), a virtual campus that can offer interactive training for people online. After training, Veterans can be matched and then enter jobs related to their training with private sector employers who value the skills and experience we bring to the workforce. “Troops to Energy Jobs” is launching as a pilot program and its sponsors hope to be able to expand it to the entire energy industry.

As a proud Veteran and new employee at Energy, I know how much this effort means to those who have served and are eager to continue their contribution to our national security. I look forward to following the stories of Veterans as they go through the program and begin to translate their military skills in to energy sector achievements.

Article by Steve Dunwoody, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Energy and an Iraq War Veteran.

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Yesterday morning’s keynote address at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum was delivered by Pennsylvania’s ex-governor Ed Rendell, who spoke on the possibilities that renewable energy may gain traction through politics. I suppose anything’s possible, so I tried to track with every word – and I’m glad I did.

Rendell began by pointing to a few points of concern to all of us:

1) The US is clearly and rapidly falling behind in the arena of innovation generally and in energy particularly. In 2009, for the first time ever, the US Patent Office granted a majority of its overall patents to foreign nations/companies. And nowhere is America losing faster and more obviously than energy.

2) Those of us who believe that the world is headed in an unsustainable direction are running out of time. China will import 80% more coal this year than last, and they’re building one new coal plant per week.

3) By far, the most important energy topic discussed in Congress is light bulbs, gaining far more minutes on The Floor than the runner up issues (subsidies for oil, and energy as a national security concern). Apparently, our leaders are deadlocked on the decision to ensure that incandescent bulbs are not removed from US commerce – and neither side is blinking. Rendell paused for a moment, then asked, “Do Republicans have a huge store of old light bulbs that they wish to sell into the market? They threatened to withhold their votes to elect Fred Upton (R- MI) chairman of the energy subcommittee unless he toed the line on this issue – to which he finally acceded. The Republicans appear to be on an all-out crusade here. Regardless, we’re diddling around while the rest of the world is kicking our butts.”

But Rendell is on a crusade of his own – this one to see a renewable portfolio standard (i.e., a mandate to get to a certain minimum mix of clean energy) at the federal level. “Through years of experience at the state level, we’ve proven that clean energy mandates create payoffs in terms of a large number of good, well-paying jobs. We need a stable policy to support this at the national level – and it has to be permanent; it can’t flip-flop every four years.

So why, precisely, is this not happening? According to Rendell: “There are too many special interests arrayed against it. Over 90% of Democrat voters are in favor of Congress passing legislation that prioritizes clean energy. In fact, over 75% of Republican voters are in favor of the exact same thing. Clearly, the will of the American people is being frustrated by special interests.”

He told a story (perhaps self-serving, since he was the hero – but hey, isn’t that what politicians do?), in which he pointed out that when he was governor, Pennsylvania was one of only nine states that had no investment in pre-K education. “Harrisburg was dominated by lobbyists, and the poor kids — who would benefit most from this — had none. So I said: ‘I’m going to take this one on myself.’ Well, we won that fight, and now our young kids rank number one in reading.”

“Together, we can do this,” Rendell fairly bellowed in summary. “But we can’t do it inside the Beltway. The lobbyists are raising campaign money for our senators and representatives in Washington seven days a week. It never stops. It never stops. There are fund-raisers happening literally every night. If change is going to happen, it needs to take place in hometown America. Your leaders have to hear it from you.”

I don’t consider myself a sucker for political rhetoric, but I have to say that there was a level of gusto in my applause as Rendell left the stage.

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In October 2009, as Secretary of the Navy, I established five ambitious goals to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the Navy and Marine Corps and increase the use of alternative energy to at least 50% of our energy requirements no later than 2020.  These goals support the President’s objective to create a new energy future and a clean energy economy for the United States, and the reasons for doing so are clear and compelling:

• Reducing our reliance on foreign sources of energy makes the country more secure.  Competition over fossil fuel resources has been one of the leading sources of conflict for thousands of years.  Today, little has changed – whether it is oil, natural gas, or electricity – disruptions in the flow of energy can cause major economic havoc and negatively affect both our national security and international stability.
• Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels makes our people safer.  Getting fossil fuels to our troops on the front lines is one of the most dangerous things we do.  In fact, we import more gasoline into Afghanistan than any other product. Moving fuel to our Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) means convoys, which means protecting our convoys with Marines and Sailors, taking them away from doing what we sent them to Afghanistan to do and making them vulnerable to IEDs and ambush.  If we can reduce the number of convoys by making our systems more efficient, or generating power from solar energy at the FOBs, we make our troops safer.
• Increasing energy efficiency makes our ships, aircraft, and vehicles more tactically capable.  A better engine on a plane means it can go farther, and stay airborne longer.  Better engines on ships results in less time spent refueling in vulnerable locations in port or at sea – a lesson we learned all too clearly with the USS COLE.
• Increasing alternative energy use by the Navy and Marine Corps helps create an alternative energy market.  The Navy uses a third of the fossil fuels consumed by the Federal Government, which in turn uses about two percent of fossil fuels in America.  The Navy and Marine Corps’ plan helps spur private investment and ultimately moves the country toward a clean energy economy.
• Reducing the energy footprint of the Navy and Marine Corps significantly reduces our carbon footprint.

Since our objectives were announced, we have made great progress toward our goals:

• In Quantico, Virginia and in Twenty-Nine Palms, California, the Marine Corps established two expeditionary Forward Operating Base as test sites for alternative energy projects that can be used by our combat forces in Afghanistan. Because of the work done there, the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, deployed this summer to Helmand Province and even in the midst of a contested environment, the Battalion has reduced its use of fossil fuel by 20 percent and reduced its logical support requirements by successfully employing solar power systems at its bases and combat outposts.
• On Earth Day in April 2010, we tested an F/A-18 fighter jet on a camelina-based biofuel blend at supersonic speeds. In the months following, we extended testing to naval helicopters and, using an algae-based biofuel, to riverine combat craft. We have proved that our engines don’t care what they use, performance on biofuel is just as good as performance on fossil-based jet fuel. Just as importantly, neither of these fuels impacts food supply, the carbon footprint in terms of production is low, and the cost of each is rapidly falling.
• For our surface ships, we have developed a hybrid electric drive for the USS MAKIN ISLAND that dramatically increases fuel efficiency. Over the ship’s more than 30-year lifespan, she will save up to $250 million in fuel costs – at today’s prices. As we move forward over the next few years to extend this technology to other ships of the fleet, our savings will continue to grow.
• All across the United States, we are working with other federal departments, with industry, and with academia to move forward on alternative energy research and development. One of the most promising partnerships got underway last summer in Hawaii, which imports almost all its energy, when the Navy began a project with the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the State of Hawaii to develop biofuel production in the State. Over the next few years, this project will help create a new industry for the Hawaii, will benefit local farmers and entrepreneurs, and will create locally produced fuel for ships of the Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor.

Just as we have done for 235 years, the Navy and Marine Corps are leading the nation in adopting new technology to make our country more secure. With the assistance of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, farmers, and industry – and with the leadership and support of the President, we are helping to create a new energy future.

Article by Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy

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A new report released today by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) provides specific and practical recommendations on how the Nation can transform its current carbon-based economy into a safer, more sustainable, and economically advantageous energy ecosystem.

It calls for significant changes in the way the Federal government coordinates the complex job of fulfilling America’s energy needs across multiple agencies and programs—changes that promise to increase economic competitiveness, enhance environmental stewardship, and strengthen national security. The report also calls for significantly increasing Federal investments in energy-related research and development and suggests new revenue options that could support the development of more efficient energy technologies.

Report to the President on Accelerating the Pace of Change in Energy Technologies Through an Integrated Federal Energy Policy (pdf) calls upon the Federal government to craft a government-wide Federal energy policy and update it regularly with strategic Quadrennial Reviews similar to those produced regularly by the Department of Defense. It recommends realistic approaches to increasing the Nation’s inveastment in clean –energy technologies by about $10 billion per year. And it calls for a review of current legislative energy subsidies and incentives—including preferred tax treatment and trade restrictions—with the goal of better aligning them with evolving priorities as specified in the Quadrennial Energy Review.

The report got quick support from the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC)—a group of America’s top business executives including Bill Gates, chairman and former chief executive of Microsoft; Norm Augustine, former chairman of Lockheed Martin; Ursula Burns, chairman and chief executive of Xerox; John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins; Chad Holliday, chairman of Bank of America and former CEO of DuPont; Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE; and Tim Solso, chairman and chief executive of Cummins. In a letter released this morning, AEIC chairman Chad Holliday wrote:

“The overarching transformation in the national energy innovation system that PCAST deems necessary is consistent with the urgent recommendations put forward by AEIC earlier this year. In PCAST’s important new study, a comprehensive energy strategy is suggested along with significantly increased public investments in energy technology innovation. … Enactment of these recommendations would be a critically important step toward creating a cleaner, more secure energy system for the American people.”

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On Oct. 13 the Department of Defense (DoD) hosted an Energy Security Forum as part of National Energy Awareness Month. We spent the day with leaders from the military services and the White House for a discussion on how the Department of Defense can turn our energy use from a strategic and operational challenge to a key strength for the warfighter.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, kicked off our discussion and reinforced the critical nature of energy security for the Department. “Energy security needs to be one of the first things we think about, before we deploy another soldier, before we build another ship or plane, and before we buy or fill another rucksack.”

Adm. Mullen’s remarks were followed by a conversation with Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, and Aneesh Chopra, the Nation’s chief technology officer. The panel discussed the challenges and opportunities of using innovative energy solutions to increase our military’s mission effectiveness while saving dollars and lives.

The morning’s panel was followed by closing remarks delivered by the Honorable Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy, who, while emphasizing the impacts of energy on our national security today and in the future, said “our military and our country rely too much on fossil fuels. For the military, that dependence has tremendous strategic and tactical implications.”

The afternoon featured a panel of DoD energy practitioners including a Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, current and former base commanders, and other leading defense innovators. These leaders talked about a range of energy initiatives including one at Fort Bliss to make the base a Renewable Energy Center of Excellence. During the base’s greening efforts, a team found a natural source of 190° water which can be used as a source of geothermal energy. The base is also taking advantage of wind, solar, and biomass resources to provide secure electrical power for the installation.

Also as part of the Energy Awareness Week, the services transformed the Pentagon Center Courtyard into a showcase of their investments in energy technologies. Technologies on display ranged from solar powered water purification units to military vehicles using next generation materials and energy sources to light weight batteries that can give better range and endurance.

Adm. Mullen’s closing to his morning keynote captured the growing importance of energy security for the Department of Defense. “Few of us can argue that the need is not there. Many of us can see that the right technology is emerging, And I hope all of us can agree that the time for change is now.”

Article by Sharon Burke and Dr. Dorothy Robyn. Sharon Burke is Director of Operational Energy Plans and Programs at the Department of Defense. Dr. Dorothy Robyn is the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment at the Department of Defense.

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October 13th is the 235th Anniversary of the founding of the United States Navy. So it was incredibly appropriate that today I had the opportunity to speak at two events focused on our military’s energy policy, because how the Navy and Marine Corps have harnessed energy has shaped our history since the birth of the Republic. And how energy is used and produced in the United States will continue to affect both our national security, and the strategic and tactical capabilities of our forces, long into the future.

The military and the United States depend too much on fossil fuels. But over the last two years the Department of the Navy has made significant strides to change that, and is moving toward the President’s vision of a new energy future powered by alternative energy. The reasons for making this change are clear. First and foremost, energy reform is about the lives of our troops. For every 24 fuel convoys that go into Afghanistan, we lose one American, killed or wounded. That is too high a price to pay for energy.

We also saw the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels when the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico this past April. The subsequent spill not only released a torrent of oil into the Gulf, but also began a chain reaction of events that dramatically affected the livelihoods of millions of Americans living along the coast. For months, I saw those impacts first-hand, as I worked on behalf of the President to create a plan that would allow for long-term ecosystem, health, and economic recovery on the Gulf Coast.

And we’ve seen that energy security is not just an American issue. Just two days ago, I returned from a trip to Europe, and what was continually reinforced to me was that energy, or more appropriately denial of energy, can be used as a weapon – one just as effective as tanks and airplanes.

Over the past year, the Navy and Marine Corps have worked towards ambitious goals, reducing our fossil fuel usage and investing in energy research and new projects so that by 2020, half of all the energy we use – afloat and ashore – will come from alternative sources.

In support of those goals, today Administrator Karen Mills of the Small Business Administration and I signed a memorandum of understanding to provide contract opportunities for small businesses on sustainable energy programs, pilots, and initiatives. This agreement was accompanied by the launch of the SECNAV Green Biz Ops website, which is designed to be the single Department of the Navy source for listing alternative energy products and services, energy conservation projects, and energy technologies.

Through these initiatives, and through continued development and testing of biofuels and other alternative energies, the Navy and Marine Corps will continue to lead the military towards a better and more secure energy future. Godspeed.

Article by Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy.

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I was keeping a tally sheet at last week’s Renewable Energy Finance Forum, so I could let readers know the issue that was brought up most often and granted the most overall prominence. The clear winner: China is eating our lunch in the migration to renewables. Inexplicably and tragically, the US is content to drop further and further behind in the development of energy technology with each passing week. While China is hiring, researching, developing, importing, exporting — and dominating the world of 21st Century energy, we seem to be content to argue and point fingers at each other.

As Winston Churchhill observed, “America will always do the right thing — after it has exhausted all other options.” But can anyone see this moving anytime soon — for any reason — least of all because it’s “the right thing?” None of the promises of renewable energy: jobs, national security, addressing concerns about peak oil and the climate issue — seem to motivate action on our part.

Perhaps the most visible proof of our nation’s abdication of technology leadership is the absence of a federal renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS). What are we to make of the fact that we seem to be a million miles from such a piece of legislation? Clearly, it’s the result of leaders’ pandering for votes, while scrupulously avoiding areas of controversy that might be used against them.

And now, with the recent Supreme Court decision enabling corporations to provide unlimited funding to anonymous entities that can, in turn, spend millions of campaign advertising dollars to defeat perceived enemies, our leaders need to be even more careful than they were when their enemies had to identify themselves and use their own money to slander opponents. This, of course, is another true disaster for those of us who care about free and fair elections and continue (foolishly?) to hold out hope for the effectiveness of the democratic process.

But enough about that. What about the federal RPS? Is there any hope that we can re-establish ourselves as the leader in energy technology? Here’s another tidbit from the conference: Adding nuclear power into the mix of renewables might provide the political muscle to pass a federal RPS. After all, it IS carbon-free. Proponents claim, “Nuclear energy presents a safe, clean, and inexpensive alternative to other methods of producing electricity. Nuclear waste can either be reprocessed or disposed of safely.”

But is any of this true? No. Do most renewable energy supporters believe that nuclear should be included in the list of clean energy technologies? Of course not. But who cares? In the 10-or-so years it takes to plan and permit the next nuclear reactor, the cost/benefit of photovoltaics, wind, concentrating solar power, geothermal, and biomass will have improved to such a point that nuclear will be completely irrelevant.

Go on; invite them to the party. Give them all the political support they’ve worked so long and hard to purchase. In the end, it won’t matter. Despite the rhetoric, you’ll never see another nuke deployed in the US.

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