Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) cites national security as a reason to conserve fuel. | John Shinkle/POLITICO The biggest oil guzzler? The Pentagon

So, you think you’ve got the gas prices blues. Just consider Al Shaffer, the man in charge of drafting an energy strategy for the gas-­guzzling Pentagon.

With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and troops spread around the world, the Department of Defense is the nation’s biggest oil consumer, burning 395,000 barrels per day — about as much as Greece.


The Air Force is the SUV of the military. Its thirsty planes burn more than half the fuel supply for the entire U.S. military. It’s received $1.5 billion in new relief from Congress for fuel — and last week still had $400 million left on its credit card.

For years, some lawmakers have been pressing the Pentagon to go greener, and they’re hoping today’s soaring prices will inject some urgency into the Defense Department’s efforts.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who formed a Defense Energy Working Group, seized on the issue in 2004 after learning that the Army’s Stryker combat vehicles got only 5 miles per gallon of gas.

He cited national security as another reason to conserve fuel.

“Here is our current defense posture,” Israel said. “We are borrowing money from China to fund our defense budgets to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to fund our military to protect us from China and the Persian Gulf. It is an insidious vulnerability.”

Defense Department officials know there is a problem, Israel said, but they also are well aware that it can’t be fixed overnight. Israel once pressed Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England to conduct a national competition for an energy-efficient naval propulsion system. England sent back a picture drawn by schoolchildren in crayon — of a boat with oars.

That’s not to say there’s been no progress. The Air Force claims to be a leader in energy efficiency — despite the fact that it buys enough jet fuel to match 10 percent of the domestic market.

Now, Assistant Air Force Secretary William C. Anderson is trying to turn that consumption into an advantage by working with the nation’s two largest commercial airlines to create a market for alternative jet fuel.

The Air Force is also pursuing public-private partnerships that draw on its market clout as a huge consumer to push development of small nuclear reactors and coal-to-liquid fuel plants.

And it touts its success at harvesting solar energy with photovoltaic panels at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas.

But while the Pentagon has done a lot to advance the cause of alternative energies, Israel and others say it should use its huge size to become a transformational force in the energy market — as NASA did when it popularized Velcro.

“The Defense Department has been a driver of a lot of technological innovations — look at the Internet,” said Sarah Wilhoite, a legislative representative for Earthjustice. “If someone has the funds to do it, I would think it would be the Defense Department.”

The first step, Israel suggested, is turning the Pentagon into a giant laboratory to develop new fuels and energy-efficient products that could be transferred to the commercial market.

“The biggest stumbling block on this is it’s not the most fascinating issue — at least it wasn’t until oil hit $140 a barrel,” Israel said.

He’s not alone in these recommendations. The Defense Science Board and Government Accountability Office have recommended that the Pentagon designate an executive-level official to handle energy and mobility issues. The science board also said the Pentagon could offer better incentives to get its leaders to consider energy efficiency.

The Pentagon told GAO it would draw up an energy security strategic plan by next May.

And that’s where Shaffer comes in.

The former meteorologist and career military officer is now the Pentagon’s acting director of defense research and engineering, and the leader of the Pentagon’s Energy Security Task Force, formed in 2006 in response to the spike in fuel prices after Hurricane Katrina.

“We noticed a $10 barrel of oil increase in price of fuel increased operations by $1.3 billion,” Shaffer said in an interview, noting that in the years since, the Pentagon has increased its annual research and operation investment by $200 million per year.

While some of the Pentagon’s pilot programs have begun to bear fruit, Shaffer’s challenge is to make the case that investments in energy efficiency will save money in the long run.

Current versions of the Defense Authorization Bill include myriad energy-related provisions, requiring reports and pushing the Pentagon to describe how it is implementing its energy strategy.

And Tuesday, at the nomination hearing for the next Air Force secretary and chief of staff, questions about alternative fuels wound up on the lists of three Republican senators: Jeff Sessions of Alabama, John Thune of South Dakota and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the chief of staff nominee, said he would take three approaches on energy: operating aircraft more efficiently, looking at coal-to-liquid and other alternative fuels, and making weapons systems more efficient.

“It’s something we need to keep in our technology focus,” he said.

Environmentalists are hoping the Pentagon’s billions of dollars can make a change.

But according to Shaffer, the nation as a whole will have to challenge itself to become energy efficient in 20 years.

“That’s bigger than DOD,” he said. “The benefits of that would be tremendous.”