“The U.S. Navy’s Economic and Strategic Impact from Florida around the Globe” | Meredith Berger, Assistant Secretary of the Navy | October 10, 2024

Assistant Navy Secretary Berger spoke to the Club by a live video stream as Hurricane Milton was just leaving Florida.  She pointed out that hurricanes, storms, fires, other forms of bad weather and climate change are something the Department of the Navy has to prepare for all around the world.

“It’s a threat that we see that’s not bound necessarily by geography, season or time.  It happens in other parts of the world, too,” she said.  She referenced a typhoon that struck Joint Region Marianas (Guam and the Northern Marianas) last year.

“Ahead of the storm, we protected our critical infrastructure, secured systems, moved our platforms, everything from cars to ships to aircraft, and we sheltered our infrastructure the best we could so we could get the power back on to our community, both inside and outside the fence line.  Because that’s how a defense community works.  We prepared fresh water, charged devices, aggregated supplies, and then you just sit and wait,” she said.

In her role as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment, she supports what she called the three “C’s”.

• Community – “These are the ecosystems that allow us to survive and thrive, succeed and achieve the economies that support our way of life.  It’s where our values that we hold and defend reside.  It’s the institutions you’re all a part of, regions, cities, towns.  It’s where we lead and serve, where our base is and the environment that surrounds them and supports them.”
• Critical Infrastructure – “These are ports, natural and man-made structures, roads and runways, barracks and depots, utilities, energy and water that connect us, sustain us, prepare us, and ultimately protect us.”
• Climate – “We consider this a war fighting advantage, a tactical and strategic enabler and significantly, a conflict deterrent.”

Ms. Berger also serves as the Navy’s Chief Sustainability Officer.  “As we think about climate change and whatever term you want to assign to the impact that we’re seeing, so extreme weather, heat, drought, floods, resource scarcity, this is a national security threat for us.   It’s a threat that we take seriously, and we are on the front lines of it.”

One way of being on the front lines is by investigating the need for buried power cables.  She discussed last year’s fires in Maui where above-ground power cables were burned.

She said reaction to climate is considered part of the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions required of the Navy and Marine Corps by law.

She said that the government is also looking at electrification, both in their installations and in their vehicles.

“It makes us more secure and independent.  Electric vehicles and renewable battery packs give us a war fighting advantage, too.  It allows us to be quieter, less discoverable.  Advanced technology and sustainable sources of energy and fuel allow us to stay on station and focused on mission longer.”

She added that annual record-breaking heat in San Diego this year forced the Navy to take action to prevent power disruptions at bases there.

“In order to prevent those disruptions,” she said, “we’ve partnered with the city there so that at the Port of San Diego, the Navy unplugs all 20 ships there from the grid so that they operate on their own power. And then at the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar, the base shifts from the commercial grid to a micro grid so that we can actually manage off of stored power instead of putting that strain on the grid.”

Extreme heat causes other problems, too.

“It puts the body under extreme stress so that our troops can’t exercise, causing what we call Black Flag days where it is so hot and so dangerous to undergo prescribed training that our people can’t function and our platforms can’t function under the heat.  It puts our power supplies at risk.  Our critical infrastructure that we rely on to ensure that we can access the information and tools that we need may not function, and as a result, both our critical infrastructure and mission can end up under duress.”

Berger also told the Club that the Navy is focused on sustainable building design, facility decarbonization, and net zero energy, which means generating more energy than it consumes.

“We are taking every opportunity to make sure that we are taking action that is sustainable investments, that are sustainable research that supports our sustainability, so that near term decisions and investments and policy ensure our near-term success and our long-term advantage.”

In closing, she said her job is to make sure that the Navy has every advantage, that it protects its investments, keeps its people safe, and above all else, prioritize its mission.

(You can also view the entire Club meeting on YouTube.)