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Have you had your energy epiphany yet? Join the Scott Energy Conversation

  • Published
  • By Col. Mike Hornitschek
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing commander
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Have you had your energy epiphany yet?

Your energy epiphany occurs when you realize that 1) as the single largest institutional consumer of oil in the world, the U.S. military (and our national security) is dependent on abundant supplies of low cost energy to execute our strategy of global reach and overwhelming dominance of the battle field, 2) you and every other American consumes nearly three gallons of petroleum a day on average, of which two is imported, 3) the realization that at present rates of production the U.S. has only 11 years of domestic oil reserves left, and that 4) after an exhaustive analysis of true global reserves, the International Energy Agency predicted last November that Peak Oil will occur no later than 2020. Got your attention yet? Here's the real energy epiphany: energy security begins with you.

October is the Federal Government's Energy Awareness Month--a month set aside for people to become aware of their energy dependencies, to understand the vulnerabilities associated with those dependencies, and to begin behaving in a manner that conserves energy. For most people, energy is an abstraction--as a society we've created such convenient consumer delivery systems that we never see the fuel that enters our gas tank or the coal that is burned at a power plant 50 miles away from our wall electrical outlet. And as such, we never stop to think that those energy supply streams are actually finite and in fact cost us a good deal of very real money--here at Scott we spent upwards of $12 million last year to power our facilities. With a work population of 13,000 personnel, that comes to about $1,000 per person per year.

The Air Force has developed an excellent 2010 Energy Plan that can be found at www.safie.hq.af.mil/esoh/index.asp. This document focuses on enhancing energy security through a strategy of increasing supply, reducing demand, and culture change. The Air Force expects all of us to make energy a consideration in all that we do. This effort begins by first understanding how we truly use energy, by understanding where our energy comes from, and then taking real action in our jobs and personal lives to start making a difference. This is a new culture in which people actually understand that energy is an operations enabler. You can follow the Air Force's energy program on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AirForceEnergy.

Through the collective effort of us all, our energy security can be assured, but we have to take deliberate steps to make it happen. Over the next several decades we must transition from the consumption of our finite geological energy trust fund to renewable energy supplies, but we must act quickly before that trust fund is empty or becomes too hard or expensive to access. New technologies will reduce demand and increase supply, but we must still develop and adopt those new capabilities--until then we remain vulnerable. I would personally love to see Scott AFB become a net zero energy base within 20 years, but it won't happen unless people start taking action today.

The culture change journey begins locally with each of us. It begins with a conversation. To that end, I'm announcing the inauguration of the Scott Energy Conversation. The SEC will be held from 4-6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in the 375 AMW conference room in Bldg P7. The discussion is for any and all personnel with access to Scott AFB, and is designed to be an open-ended dialogue of discovery (and maybe even action) regarding energy awareness and security. Consider this to be another seminar offered at the Scott campus of "Leadership University." For this October Energy Awareness month only, I invite you to join me next week at Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. in my conference room to kick off the conversation. Together, we'll foster a culture where we're all learning to think of energy as a key component of maximizing mission effectiveness, and as we develop this culture, we'll become better stewards of our resources and environment and help ensure a bright future for our nation. That's our true energy epiphany--see you there.