The New Yorker‘s Steve Coll is reading through the stimulus bill. This is interesting:
The energy-efficiency issue is the most interesting [in Title III, "Department of Defense"]. In 2008, a Defense Science Board Task Force studied the Pentagon’s use of energy and how its dependence on costly (in lives and budgets) convoys hauling gasoline and jet fuel in war theatres might be reduced. The report found that one of the most fuel-sucking practices of the military is its use of generators in the field to run air conditioners to cool highly energy-inefficient tents and trailers. In Iraq alone, the report implies, more than a few soldiers have died on roads where their mission was hauling fuel to cool down tents and barracks that, if properly insulated, might not have required so much energy in the first place. There are many other fascinating findings about war-fighting and energy, if you don’t already possess enough ridiculously dense and wonky material for your book club.
