Todd “Ike” Kiefer

Captain Todd “Ike” Kiefer, USN (retired) is a public utilities executive and former naval aviator with seven deployments to the CENTCOM AOR and four to OIF, including 22 months on the ground in Iraq.

He currently serves as president of the North Lauderdale Water Association in Bailey, MS, where he is spearheading deployment of cutting-edge technology in rural utilities, including plant automation, back-office software development and integration, and rural fixed wireless broadband via a self-deployed private LTE network.

His 14-year career in public utilities began with two years in command of the sprawling Al Asad Air Base in Iraq and of Training Squadron NINE. During his service, he was deployed eight times to the Middle East and Southwest Asia. He also spent six years on the management team of East Mississippi Electric Power Association. He has served as an economic development and utility development advisor to the local county government and has been the principal author of multiple utility bills passed into law by the Mississippi legislature.

His distinguished professional journey includes service on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He capped off his military career as the CJCS Chair for Joint Warfighting at the Air Force Air War College, where he researched and published primary and alternative energy, as well as taught leadership and warfighting.

Kiefer is the author of several papers on energy security, with his most notable being Twenty-First Century Snake Oil: Why the United States Should Reject Biofuels as Part of a Rational National Security Energy Strategy, otherwise known as the “Kiefer Biofuels Report”.

He has degrees in physics, strategy, and military history, and diverse military experience that spans airborne electronic warfare, nuclear submarines, operational flight test, particle accelerators, Pentagon Joint Staff strategic planning, and war college faculty.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the Joint Forces Staff College.

Interview Topics

• Biofuels
• Military use of Energy
• EROI
• Energy History
• Grid DER & Stability
• Ethanol Mandates