NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland –
Energy security, operational energy and energy diplomacy were the themes in a plenary session during the Worldwide Energy Conference held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland, April 11.
In his opening remarks DLA Energy Commander Air Force Brig. Gen. Martin Chapin said the focus for the plenary session was on seeing energy from a different perspective.
“It’s important to know that not all fuel and energy is equal and tactical like we see day-to-day,” Chapin said. “I offer you a broader viewpoint with the hopes of being enlightened today, gaining a strategic view of how energy impacts the Department of Defense and our nation as a whole.”
Chapin introduced the first speaker, Steven Iselin, acting assistant Secretary of the Navy (Energy, Installations and Environment), U.S. Department of the Navy.
Iselin thanked Chapin along with industry leaders for their support and spoke of the initiatives important to ensuring Naval energy securities.
“The most important initiative of the Department of the Navy is delivering energy solutions that are good for warfighter solutions or as a good business case,” Iselin said.
A retired Navy commander, Iselin is responsible for oversight and policy for Navy and Marine Corps facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization; military construction; acquisition, utilization and disposal of real property and facilities; environmental protection, planning, restoration and natural resources conservation; and safety and occupational health.
Chapin thanked Iselin for the integral partnership between DLA Energy and the Navy to the warfighter.
The second speaker, Oliver Fritz, is the deputy for Operational Energy, U. S. Department of Defense.
Beginning with announcing that his office is just two years in operation, Fritz said his mission is resupplying the military forces (air, sea and land) with operational fuel and energy.
He explained the Department’s operational and facility energy usage, operational strategy by sustaining future platforms in combat, understanding indicators, reducing risks and the political nature of fuel and energy.
“We are operationally focused on mission driven improvements and sustainment to our operational forces,” Fritz said.
Fritz was key in developing the Department’s Operational Energy Strategy and supporting Implementation Plan. In addition to overseeing institutional changes in policy, doctrine, concepts, and strategy regarding the use of energy by the Department, Fritz is assessing the broader effects of changing energy markets on U.S. national security.
The final plenary speaker, Alan Eyre, from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources spoke about the bureau’s engagement of being on the frontline of our diplomatic engagement on energy to advance U.S. national interests.
“Energy is a tool and it can be used constructively or for destructive purposes and what we do at the State Department and the Energy Bureau is work with countries around the world to ensure energy resources are used constructively to build connections, increase stability and ensure security for ourselves and for our allies,” Eyre said.
Eyre is responsible for ensuring energy considerations infuse and inform U.S. foreign policy. His major professional focus has been on Iran. He is a fluent Persian linguist, a recipient of the State Department’s “Linguist of the Year” award for his work in the Persian language on Iran, and is widely acknowledged as one of the U.S. Government’s foremost experts on Iran.
Chapin closed the plenary session with expressing the resonating theme from all the speakers that this is a very exciting time in the world energy market.
“How the world is changing and how those changes impact us affect how we all do business tactically and strategically every day,” he said.
Chapin thanked the speakers for their time and presented them with a DLA Energy plaque.