As it turns out, and I guess this makes sense though I hadn't thought about this before, the Defense Department is the largest consumer of energy in the United States. And suppose that's perfectly reasonable, they use up more fuel, what with their jets and all... So I suppose it's super-huge news when the DoD says they're going green.

The US department of defense in fact plans to use millions in stimulus dollars to tackle many cool green projects. Among them is a device that converts base waste material into biofuel and then runs a 60 kilowatt generator with it. That seems reasonable enough to me, and what with fuel convoys making up about half of the operations where casualties have occurred, it seems to me anything to make the base more self-sufficient and less dependent on outside sources of energy has to be a good thing. Other projects include solar arrays that roll up for easy transport to forward bases and some foam that can be used to insulate tents, though I'm going to go out on a limb here and say since they didn't mention it being a uber-ecofriendly foam, it probably is terrible and doesn't break down for millennia.

All and all good things to research I believe, and I hope that some level of this technology is declassified and open for use in the private sector as I'm sure they've got a pretty good thing going if they think they can turn the ton of trash a base can produce per day into energy.