Meanwhile, the Defense Department is increasing its use of renewable energy, making significant headway on cleaning up contaminated properties, and implementing environmental management systems as required by a presidential order, according to March 2 testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Philip W. Grone, deputy under secretary of defense for installations and the environment, updated the subcommittee on progress by the military toward improving its environmental performance.

Defense Department installations were required by the end of last year to adopt environmental management systems, which incorporate environmental management into all aspects of mission planning and daily operations. All Defense installations are implementing those systems, except for six installations affected by Hurricane Katrina, Grone told the senators in written testimony submitted to the panel.