Senior US Army officials have undertaken a major effort to reduce the service's massive fuel consumption, which has nearly doubled in wartime and is on track to cost as much as USD3 billion in 2008. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Chief of Staff General George Casey have signed a charter creating a Senior Energy Council, which will serve as an advocate for army programmes to harvest alternative energy sources ranging from solar to wind power and, possibly in the future, nuclear energy. "What we're trying to do is collect the energy initiatives and put them in one place where they can be managed and where they can get a sponsor in the army," the co-chair of the council, Keith Eastin, said on 7 October at the annual Association of the US Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, DC. Eastin, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment, will lead the council along with Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli. The army has also established a new Army Energy & Partnership Office, headed by assistant secretary Paul Bollinger.
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