06/11/2008 11:27 AM

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Getting Off Oil: Recent Leaps, Next Steps Page 3

The buyer said, "Free isn't good enough: I want to invest for a return. What can you do for me?" Dramatic and lucrative opportunities quickly emerged. In October 2005, the firm announced its new truck purchases would soon become 25% more efficient (it now expects near-completion by late 2008), and that it would double its fleet efficiency by 2015. The firm is Wal-Mart, the world's largest company. It will save billions of dollars' and Wal- Mart's immense "demand pull" will bring doubled-efficiency trucks into the marketplace. In the U.S. alone, that'll save 6% of total oil use!

Now RMI is working to enroll more buyers, speed suppliers' innovations, and demonstrate tripled-efficiency designs, which Wal-Mart's CEO has acknowledged as a realistic goal.

Having analyzed and advocated for military energy efficiency for two decades and served as an independent member of two U.S. Defense Science Board task forces advising the Secretary of Defense on this issue, I've long urged military leaders to start valuing saved fuel at its delivered value.
Tying down whole divisions hauling fuel and guarding convoys diverts and degrades combat capability. About half of all U.S. theater are related to convoys, which mainly haul inefficiently used fuel. The "fully burdened" cost is many times the $13-billion cost of undelivered military fuel in FY2006.

Winning the Oil Endgame recommended a practical long-term plan for tripling the average fuel efficiency of military platforms and installations. Today that estimate looks realistic, perhaps even conservative. The resulting DoD R&D emphasis on light-and-strong materials, advanced propulsion, etc. will help to transform the civilian car, truck, and plane industries toward tripled fuel efficiency, much as past military R&D led to the Internet, the Global Positioning System, and the jet-engine and microchip industries. The Pentagon is thus emerging within the U.S. Government as the leader in getting the nation off oil.

In February 2008, the Defense Science Board panel released a report. Its Appendix E revealed an important policy created in April 2007 by the Under Secretary of Defense: "Effective immediately, it is DoD policy to include the fully burdened cost of delivered energy in trade-off analyses conducted for all tactical systems with end items that create a demand for energy and to improve the energy efficiency of those systems, consistent with mission requirements and cost effectiveness." A pilot project is now refining and field-testing this policy.

Another new directive, approved by the Joint Staff in 2006, will selectively apply to new weapons systems an Energy Efficiency Key Performance Parameter-a core metric that drives requirements-writing and acquisition. In May 2008 I hope to start helping the Defense Acquisition University, which trains all DoD purchasers, to apply these vital concepts. And as soon as we can find funding, I intend to expand RMI's efforts to help the civilian and uniformed leadership to embed energy efficiency irreversibly in the Services' cultures and processes.

From cellulosic ethanol to butanol to algal oils, a portfolio of exciting new biofuel options is moving from lab to market, including breakthroughs not yet announced. RMI recently helped the National Renewable Energy Laboratory redesign a cellulosic ethanol plant to save half its steam, three-fifths of its electricity, and a third of its capital cost, and other emerging advances can cut costs even more drastically.

At RMI, we're experiencing a rush of pre-nostalgia just thinking about the richer, fairer, safer world beyond oil.

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Amory Lovins is Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Adapted from RMI Solutions, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner

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