ClimateOne

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus believes that the US military can jump-start the clean energy revolution. "If we can begin to get this energy from different places and from different sources, then I think you can flip the line from 'Field of Dreams': If the Navy comes, they will build it. If we provide the market, then I think you'll begin to see the infrastructure being built, the price per kilowatt-hour come down." The Navy's carbon footprint is vast -- it operates 290 ships, owns 75,200 buildings on 3.3 million acres of land -- but, against this profligacy, the Navy announced an ambitious plan last fall to slash fuel use and carbon emissions. "Within 10 years, the United States Navy will get one-half of all its energy needs, both afloat and ashore, from non-fossil fuel sources," Mabus says. Mabus also serves as President Obama's 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. "Obviously, the cap that was placed on oil companies, which was $70 million, did not anticipate anything remotely like this incident. The legal structure ... needs to be updated to take into account realities as they exist today," Mabus says. Asked by Climate One's Greg Dalton what an appropriate dollar figure for the liability cap might be, Mabus replied: "I'm not sure there needs to be a cap."