The Air Force on Wednesday issued a new energy plan that lays out the service’s long-range—to 2035—institutionalized energy goals and how it aims to reduce energy demand, increase supply through alternative and renewable energy sources, and change the service’s culture so that energy is a consideration in everything that airmen do. “Military forces will always be dependent on energy, but we must dramatically reduce the risk to national security associated with our current energy posture,” said Debra Walker, USAF’s lead for installations, logistics, and environment, in the service’s release. The plan, about two years in the making, builds on recent USAF policy guidance. The Air Force is the largest energy consumer in the federal government and is also at the forefront of national alternative and renewable energy activities. (Air Force Energy Plan 2010; caution, large document.)
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
