Blog Posts tagged with "energy"

As I type this it is the 94^th anniversary of Lithuania’s Declaration of Independence (Feb. 16). Happy National Day to my friends in Vilnius! 

Lithuania is a steadfast ally and friend of the United States. Also, US European Command is a bilateral partner with Lithuania’s new national Energy Security Center, since both organizations signed a bilateral partnership memorandum in November 2011.

I just attended a Lithuania/NATO-hosted Energy Security Conference in Vilnius. It was cold there, very cold. It was -30C.  I can still hear the sound of the snow crunching under my feet. Did I say that it was cold? It was frigid outside as Lithuanian winter-related deaths from the arctic weather climbed. Yet, the cold made it a very appropriate setting for an Energy Security conference, as Russian gas exports to the European Union dropped by more than 30 percent due to Gazprom’s inability to satisfy both domestic and European demands.

Mike Anderson, US European Command’s J9 (second from left) with Lithuanian friends and colleagues at Lithuania’s Energy Security Center. From left, COL Romualdas Petevicius, Deputy Director, Anderson, Ms Rasa Pažarauskiene, Policy Chief, and Ambassador Audrius Bruzga, Center.

Lithuania is proud to note that they are an “energy island”. The NordStream pipeline takes Russian gas under the North Sea directly to Germany.  It intentionally bypasses Lithuania (and Poland). The country’s lone functional nuclear power plant is mandated by the EU to cease operations due to its risky construction. Poland’s much-touted shale gas veins, unfortunately for Lithuania, do not extend across the border. Lithuania is indeed an “energy island”.

Yet, Lithuania looks to turn that seeming disadvantage to an advantage. They have plans to construct a new, more secure nuclear power plant. They have also listened to NATO heads of state touting the importance of “energy security” at the past 3 NATO Summits (Riga -2006, Bucharest -2008, Lisbon -2010) and have raised their hands and offered to host a NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence.  I was there in Lithuania at the initial conference on the path to what they hope will be a COE.

At European Command J9, Interagency Partnering Directorate, we’ve been believers in Lithuania’s focus on energy security since they stood up their own national Energy Security Center in January 2011. We have responsibility for Energy Security on the EUCOM staff and host critical infrastructure engineers as well as representatives from the Departments of Energy and State. We visited the Center in March 2011 and hosted their Director and Deputy Director in Stuttgart during one of our exercises. We are impressed with their efforts to organize an operational-level, energy security-related exercise, ENERGEX 12, in September 2012. They are thinking now of how to help deployed military units reduce their dependence on fossil fuel – the number one commodity transported by ISAF in Afghanistan.

The world’s armed forces are the biggest consumers of energy. Our own US Army consumes more than any other public or private entity and uses more energy than 100 nations in the world. This Center is seeking innovative, deployable, renewable energy solutions for military units and looks to share best practices among allies. This, as NATO Secretary General Rasmussen has noted, is “Smart Defense”, something that will be touted by heads of state at the next NATO Summit in Chicago in May 2012, along with, I predict, again, energy security.

There were 18 of NATO’s 28 nations at this conference and a high confidence was expressed that this Center of Excellence is both timely and needed. There is more and more global energy consumption as economies develop and consequently there is greater reliance on critical energy infrastructure. This is a NATO area of interest, just as is producing clean, renewable energy for military units in the field.

There are presently 18 NATO Centers of Excellence – I like Lithuania’s chances of furnishing the 19^th. After all, this 1000 year old civilization, whose language is related to Sanskrit, has a well-earned reputation for adapting. They are also a basketball-crazy nation. I play basketball and what it is above all else, is a team sport. This is a necessary ingredient for hosting a Center of Excellence, which is also very much a “team sport”, focused on sharing best practices with friends.

Mike Anderson
Acting Director, J9 – Interagency Partnering Directorate