Why this Louisiana military base spent $30 million to run on geothermal energy

Given the rhetoric coming from today’s military leaders, you’d be right to think climate change and sustainability has been tossed aside. The nation’s 2025 National Security Strategy labeled climate change a “disastrous” ideology. “The Defense Department is not in the business of climate change, solving the global thermostat. We’re in the business of deterring and winning wars,” said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. And yet, there is still progress on sustainability being made; only now, it’s been rebranded as resiliency. At an Army base at Fort Polk in Louisiana, a renovation promises a cleaner, less carbon-intensive future, as well as a better living situation for servicemembers and their families. Completed in early March, the base represents a first-of-its-kind, $30 million investment in modernizing traditionally outdated and poorly maintained housing. It includes the installation of a large-scale geothermal energy system, all using U.S.-made equipment. It’s the first such geothermal installation at a U.S. military base, and an investment in reducing the installation’s carbon footprint. “What they get out of it is a much more efficient system that responds to their needs a lot better,” says John Plack, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Implementation at Ameresco, the contractor that oversaw the retrofit. “We’re directly eliminating fossil fuel for heating.” [Photo: courtesy Ameresco] Now, the 3,600 homes on base will see their energy bills slashed by 30%. The upgrades are projected to reduce the Fort Polk family housing portfolio’s annual electrical consumption and deliver more than $2.6 million in annual utility and operational cost savings. Beyond delivering long-term savings to the installation, the initiative fostered local economic growth by investing in the community and supporting the local workforce. Resilient housing on the rise The military has a lengthy history of making substantial investment in more sustainable