E nergy has been a hot topic within DoD for the last several years, with each of the military services pledging to reduce their overall consumption and get at least 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

On the consumption front, something seems to be going right. A Thursday report from the Energy Information Administration noted that DoD’s energy use in 2013 was the best it’s been since 1975 — the first year the Energy Department started keeping records on agencies’ consumption. And while DoD is still by far the government’s largest energy user, its overall share of the federal energy bill also fell from 87 percent in 1975 to 78 percent in 2013.

In fairness, 1975 was probably a bit of an aberration — it was the final year of the Vietnam War, and the military doubtlessly consumed an above-average amount of fuel in the redeployment of U.S. forces following the fall of Saigon that April. But the EIA report, which counts both DoD’s liquid fuel and electric consumption on bases, shows a steady and consistent decline over the past 45 years, both in absolute terms and as a share of the governmentwide total.

“In addition to the drawdown of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years, several initiatives undertaken by the federal government have contributed to the decline in DoD’s installation energy usage,” wrote Rebecca George, an EIA analyst who authored the new policy brief. “The Energy Independence and Security Act passed in 2007 included goals to reduce energy intensity in federal buildings. In FY 2013, DoD lowered energy intensity in its facilities by 17 percent compared to an FY 2003 baseline. Another provision in the same bill mandated a reduction in petroleum consumption in noncombat vehicles, and, as of FY 2013, DoD reduced petroleum consumption by 27 percent from an FY 2005 baseline.”

The numbers seem to point to bona fide reductions resulting from policy decisions and more energy-efficient technologies, not just fluctuations based on with how busy the military is.

Among the factors, EIA cited the military services’ efforts to start producing renewable energy at the locations where it’s needed instead of hauling liquid fuel over long distances, along with significant efforts to start monitoring and actively managing the electricity use at each individual building. Until recently, most bases had just one electric meter on their premises: the one at the front gate.

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