It’s incredibly easy to forget things that don’t fit our established notions of partisan divisions.
Like the fact that the military, that one slice of government that Republicans are always eager to fund, is quietly one of the biggest forces driving the U.S. toward renewable energy. Turns out our combat operations require a *lot* of power to operate — making safe access to reliable, affordable energy sources a security issue. And here in the U.S., military bases are largely dependent on our old and vulnerable commercial power grid. For those reasons, conserving energy and harnessing renewable sources for onsite production have been high priorities at the Department of Defense for the last decade.
Well, Politico reminded me that one of the DOD’s top champions of that fight has long been… Trump defense secretary nominee James Mattis. Yes, it’s just one cabinet slot among many climate change deniers (skeptics, if we’re feeling charitable?). But it’s a start. Maybe he can change some minds. It probably won’t hurt that now, suddenly, solar is the cheapest form of electricity.
