Drinking Straight from the Energy Security Firehose, Volume 2: GovEnergy 2009

My first Energy Security Firehose was the third Admiral Moorer DOD energy conference held last December at NDU. All the folks who make DOD energy policy and appear on this blog, many of the participants of the 2008 DSB Energy Task Force report, were in the same room and I couldn't believe it. Since then I went to the NDIA Energy and Environment conference in Denver this Spring but instead found little "energy" and despite the "D" in NDIA, not much DOD. CNAS in May was much better.

But this week, with GovEnergy 2009 in Providence, RI, (with a few exceptions) the gang was all here. And that included the old guard, folks who have made their mark and trained the next generation, who recently left their DOD positions to join the fight from the industry side: Paul Bollinger (Army) and Mike Aimone (Air Force).

After this morning's fantastic Energy Security Game (more on that later), the closing Agency Panel Discussion showcased some of the professionals at the energy security helm in mid 2009:

• Brian Lally - OSD
• Kevin Geiss - Army
• Mike McGhee - Air Force
• Clayton "Mitch" Mitchell - Navy

To these were added FERC Reliability Director Joe McClelland and newcomer Jack Danahy, cyber security advisor to DOD and Congress, now working in the CTO's office at IBM Rational.

I'll be doing a few follow-on posts highlighting this remarkable conference. Which O-BTW, in the worst economy in recent memory, Brad Hancock and Scott McCain grew from 2,600 attendees in 2008 to 3,400 this year. Obviously, the passion of the DOD and its energy leaders is at least matched by the passion of the many who work these issues in the field and flock to this event to hear them out. Stay tuned ...