John Ellis Eckland (born 1942) is a former CIA Alternative Energy Analyst, and pioneer of early renewable energy efforts during the 1970s and 1980s. He was the founder and president of the now-defunct Fayette Manufacturing Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. In 1979, he received the Arthur S. Flemming Award for Excellence in Government Service, becoming the first CIA member to be honored with this recognition. Eckland earned a degree in economics from Tulane University. He joined the CIA as an alternative energy analyst, eventually resigning to establish the first commercial wind farm in the United States on the Altamont Pass in central California.