The Unlikely Green Revolution of the US Military
The best argument for “green” anything has never been morality — it’s just better business. When environmentalist genius Amory Lovins started his consulting group, the Rocky Mountain Institute, he probably never figured his clients would include Wal-Mart, Monsanto and Lockheed Martin. Massive scale leads to massive costs, though, and corporations are learning that their bottom line improves as their waste gets eliminated. When it comes to massive scale, nobody beats the United States Military. Maintaining over 700 bases with 577,000 buildings worldwide and waging two simultaneous wars consumes over a trillion dollars per year. Despite a reputation for corruption and $900 toilet seats, the US Military is actually a very efficient machine. Through subsidiaries like DARPA and the Army Engineers Corp, they’re also no strangers to experimental and fringe technology. If something works, they’ll be interested — and it’s increasingly clear that gas power is not working out.
