Power Shift: The U.S. Navy and Global Energy Reform
Power Shift: The U.S. Navy and Global Energy Reform \n\n\nRay Mabus, Secretary of the U.S. Navy\n\n\nGreg Dalton, Founder of Climate One\n\n\nWithin 10 years, the United States Navy will get one-half of all its energy needs, both afloat and ashore, from non-fossil fuel sources,\u201d Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says. He believes that the US military can jump-start the clean energy revolution. \u201cIf we can begin to get this energy from different places and from different sources, then I think you can flip the line from \u2018Field of Dreams\u2019: If the Navy comes, they will build it. If we provide the market, then I think you\u2019ll begin to see the infrastructure being built, the price per kilowatt-hour come down.\u201d The Navy\u2019s carbon footprint is vast \u2013 it consumes about 1 percent of all the energy used in the United States \u2013 and last fall announced an ambitious plan to slash fuel use and carbon emissions by buying hybrid vehicles, moving away from petroleum, and constructing energy efficient buildings. \n\n\nMabus also serves as President Obama\u2019s point person for recovery in the Gulf. Work is needed, he says, to modernize the technology by which oil companies respond to spills, and to update the legal structure under which they operate. \u201cObviously, the cap that was placed on oil companies, which was $70 million, did not anticipate anything remotely like this incident. The legal structure \u2026 needs to be updated to take into account realities as they exist today,\u201d Mabus says. Asked by Climate One\u2019s Greg Dalton what an appropriate dollar figure for the liability cap might be, Mabus replied: \u201cI\u2019m not sure there needs to be a cap.\u201d\n\n\nThis program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on August 16, 2010\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices