Pursuing Military Energy Efficiency (with Sprayed Building Insulation) Would Reduce the Financial Costs and Troop Deaths Associated with Fuel Convoys — Says Retired Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson

© 2011 Peter Free

 

14 January 2011

 

 

Unsupervised, unlimited supplies of money and lives explode common sense

 

In reading about the war in Afghanistan, I have been repeatedly struck by the short-sighted shortcuts the military takes in constructing minimally adequate structures in the field.

 

Lack of building insulation leads to troop discomfort, increased fuel use, and unnecessary deaths among the increased number of fuel convoy escorts that are the result.  All three negatively impact combat operations.

 

Brigadier General (retired) Steven M. Anderson, the military’s senior logistics officer in 2006-2007, wrote as much in the New York Times yesterday.

 

 

General Anderson’s credibility

 

Some of what General Anderson had to say may be tainted by corporate self-interest, but his credentials are impressive.

 

Here is what Ultralife Corporation (an energy/battery/communications provider) had to say about General Anderson, after he joined its board of directors.  I quote freely, given that the purpose of the Ultralife press release is to distribute General Anderson’s credentials:

 

A 1978 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, Anderson earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering.

 

In 1987 he earned a Master of Science in Operations Analysis Engineering at the Naval Post Graduate School. He is a graduate of the Army War College and an honor graduate of the Marine Corp Command and Staff College.

 

Most recently, he served on the Army Staff in the Pentagon as the Director, Operations and Logistics Readiness, Office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff.

 

Prior to that he served for five years as a general officer in the US Army, including 15 months as the senior US and coalition logistician in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

 

In that role, he succeeded in cutting costs through energy demand reduction and directed the US Army's Rapid Equipping Force to bring the Closed Cell Spray Polyurethane Foam initiative to Iraq to improve the energy efficiency of temporary structures.

 

© 2010 Julius Cirin, Ultralife Corporation Names Steven M. Anderson to Board of Directors, Ultralife Corporation (16 April 2010) (re-ordered and paragraphs split)

 

 

General Anderson’s New York Times op-ed piece

 

Here are some extracts:

 

Until the Defense Department develops battlefield policies recognizing that energy efficiency contributes to military effectiveness, more blood will be shed, billions of dollars will be wasted, our enemies will have thousands of vulnerable fuel trucks for targets and our commanders will continue to be distracted by the task of overseeing fuel convoys.

 

[K]eeping our bases and units supplied with fuel endangers not just the lives of many soldiers manning the tanker convoys, it also drains $24 billion a year from the Pentagon budget.

 

[I]t costs taxpayers about $66 million a day for air-conditioning in the war zones.

 

[I]n the last nine years some 1,000 Americans have been killed on fuel-related missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[T]here are casualties in one out of every 24 fuel supply convoys in Afghanistan; 47 drivers were killed there last year.

 

© 2011 Steven M. Anderson, Save Energy, Save Our Troops, New York Times (12 January 2011)

 

 

An accessible solution — sprayed foam insulation reduces building energy consumption by 80 percent

 

General Anderson noted that a 2007 Army study demonstrated that spraying the outside of inefficient buildings reduced their energy consumption by at least 80 percent.

 

In consequence, the Army began a $95 million insulation project in Iraq.  In 2009, review proved that the project had saved about $1 billion each year and had simultaneously reduced fuel-hauling by more than 11,000 trucks.

 

Yet, despite three years of quantitative proof that insulated structures in extreme climates tremendously reduce fuel requirements, there has been little effort to broaden the scope of the initiative.

 

© 2011 Steven M. Anderson, Save Energy, Save Our Troops, New York Times (12 January 2011)

 

 

If General Anderson is correct, leadership needs to overcome complacence

 

Short-sightedness kills our people and steals from our pockets.