EESI Mourns the Loss of Advisory Board Member Milt Copulos
By Bill Holmberg, Biomass Coordinating Council (BCC), and Carol Werner, Executive Director, EESI

America lost a true hero when Milton R. Copulos died last week.  His greatness was directly tied to his love and commitment to the United States, coupled with his understanding of the vital importance of the average American, and his ability to effectively represent their needs to the upper echelons of government. His work was recognized by Presidents Reagan and Bush, government officials and Members of Congress. The nation and its people are the primary beneficiaries.

Milt meritoriously served two tours in Vietnam as a Special Operations Army Sergeant. He was awarded the Bronze Star with combat V and other military honors. He was seriously damaged, which left him permanently disabled – a condition he quietly struggled with for the remainder of his life.

His experience in Vietnam with Special Operations (the Green Berets) convinced him that future battles in developing countries like Afghanistan and Iraq should include major commitments of Special Ops forces and nation-building from the bottom up. His voice in these areas helped lead to an increased focus on these methods of combat by the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  They are proving their value.

Milt was a prolific writer and a superb analyst providing words and data that slowly helped convince Americans that their dependence on oil was an urgent matter of energy and national security. These contributions also brought essential support to the renewable energy industries, particularly biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel. The United States now leads the world in biofuels production.

In 2003, he published the report, America’s Achilles Heal, The Hidden Cost of Oil. He continued to update the data; his last report in December of 07, calculated the true cost of gasoline to the consumer, when all reasonable externalities were included, was $10.07 a gallon. It is now considerably higher with oil prices well over $100/barrel.
His latest commitment is his work with Dynamotive, a biorefinery producing bio-oil for the production of electricity and biochar as a soil amendment to boost biomass production, make better use of available water, improve soils, and aid in sequestering carbon dioxide.

As a result of these many contributions, Milt Copulos is recognized as a major contributor to biomass, and now stands with other notables in the field like Rudolf Diesel and Henry Ford.

Milt was an active member of EESI’s Advisory Board and a very dear friend.  He not only was incredibly knowledgeable but he had a gifted way of looking at things – he truly saw all the connections and sought out workable solutions.  He was a wonderful person to know – a terrific storyteller and a great lover of life with a dynamite sense of humor.  He has been an inspiration to so many of us – the loss is great.