Pentagon says cutting energy use is big priority

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department, the nation's single largest consumer of energy, is putting increased focus on cutting its energy consumption and ensuring that future weapons are more energy efficient, the Pentagon's new chief weapons buyer said on Monday.

Reducing energy consumption is a big priority for the Obama administration, which has vowed to fight climate change, and could save billions of dollars at a time of mounting budget pressures, said Ashton Carter, who became undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics last month.

Carter called energy a big driver of Pentagon policies and strategies, and said the department had already tripled spending on energy research and development programs to $1.2 billion over the past two years, plus $300 million from the federal stimulus bill.

"Energy is a driver. I'm seeing it crop up everywhere," Carter told an event hosted by the Center for Naval Analyses to release a new report on the energy risks to national security. "I'm committed to staying on top of this."

He said the Pentagon used 0.3 million barrels a day of oil, about 1.5 percent of the U.S. total usage of 21 million barrels a day -- which in turn accounts for about one quarter of total world consumption of 86 million barrels a day.

In fiscal 2008, rising oil prices sent the Pentagon's fuel bill soaring to $20 billion from $13 billion a year, he said.

Carter lauded a new report released Monday by the center that was prepared by a high-level panel of retired admirals and generals, saying the issue would play a key role in several reviews of defense programs now under way at the Pentagon.

The report concluded that heavy U.S. use of fossil fuels and the fragile U.S. electricity grid posed significant security risks to the country and the military.