Pentagon study says oil reliance strains military, we learn from an article in today’s Boston Globe. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article, some followed by my comments in italics.
- The Department of Defense is the largest single energy consumer in the country.
- Of all the cargo the military transports, more than half consists of fuel. About 80 percent of all material transported on the battlefield is fuel. So much of the DoD’s fuel is used to transport… fuel.
- In 2006, the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan burned about 16 gallons of fuel per soldier on average per day. Our car’s tank carries less than 15 gallons. That transports the family of two working adults, two kids, and one lazy dog, for more than a week.
- Ensuring access to dwindling oil… carries a big price tag. The United States, relying largely on military patrols, spends an average of $44 billion per year safeguarding oil supplies in the Persian Gulf. So much of the unaffordable and growing bill for the diminishing oil goes to… safeguarding the oil.
- Weaning the military from fossil fuels… would be a herculean task… the bulk of the US arsenal… is dependent on fossil fuels and many of those military systems have been designed to remain in service for at least several decades. Maybe planned obsolescence would have been friendlier to the budget and to the earth.
Credits: Globe article by Bryan Bender; photo by Brent Danley.