tunities to work closely with local communities and to
promote “net-zero energy” both on and off post.
The DOD is also pursuing major efforts which are
unique to the military. For example, in 2009 the Navy
commissioned the U.S.S. Makin Island, the first am-
phibious assault ship equipped with a hybrid electric
drive propulsion system (Thompson 2010). The Air
Force and the Navy are testing vegetable and animal
fat based fuels in their fighter jets to help ensure their
fuel source is domestically available (Graham 2010;
Biello 2010). The Marines and the Army have collab-
orated on testing foams when applied to temporary
structures in order to increase energy efficiency, es-
pecially relevant to cooling the structures (The Pew
Project 2010; Lovins 2010).
While these initiatives are impressive, there are
still more opportunities available. For example,
Lovins (2010) estimates adopting already existing en-
ergy efficiency technology can cut DOD mobility fuel
requirement by two-thirds, maybe even three-fourths.
Energy use is perhaps the area where economies of
scale can have the greatest affect on encouraging mar-
kets beyond installation borders. Alternative energy
struggles to be competitive with more traditional en-
ergy sources, largely because infrastructure is expen-
sive to change. A large-scale shift within the military
could subsequently enable more alternative energy
options being made available to many communities.
Water
Embedded in many documents about energy there
are references to water management. While water
and energy resources are tightly linked (the overused
phrase ‘water-energy nexus’ is the focal point of many