There's been a reasonable degree of media coverage this solar power project that the US Military is engaging in to provide the Nevada Nellis Air Force base near Los Vegas with 25% solar energy. The project is to involve the use of 70, 000+ solar panels and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2008. Everybody seems to be hailing this as a bit of a breakthrough for the Bush administration, and the US Defense Department is basking nicely in the project's reflected green glory.

However the US military is not well known as an humanitarian organization. They do not need to be, as that is not their job. What is of concern though is the US military's willingness to give up land for no perceivable benefit other than lower power bills. This seems to indicate a degree of reliance on this renewable power rather than it just being the feel good public relations exercise it is being painted as.

The United States Government, along with several others like the recently removed Liberal Government in Australia, have been in denial about global climate change and have insisted on a business-as-usual approach to pollution from energy production. This has been in spite of widespread acknowledgment of the effects of increased carbon dioxide emissions on surface temperatures and weather patterns, as well as the inevitable and possibly already realized peak in oil production.

So we are forced to ask ourselves the question, why is this project being built? There are only two possibilities that hold any credibility.

First, the Bush administration may have decided there is a real need to pursue renewable energy on a large scale. The USA's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol or make any serious Federal initiatives to reduce Carbon emissions combined with their continued military involvement in the oil rich Middle East seem to deny this as a plausible explanation.

Secondly, it is possible that the US Government has realised there is an immediate need to power its military bases, which it relies on so heavily, at least in part with a secure energy source that will not be depleted. The fact that the Nellis Air Force base will be consuming 25% less fossil fuel energy and is therefore less reliant on it will not go unnoticed.

Whether this is a genuine effort at Green Power by the US or another move to support its military dominance in the face of receding oil supplies is yet to be seen. If the US announces more "partnerships" with private companies suppling renewable power to US military installations rather than the general public, then the answer to this question is clear.