so it makes complete sense to only attack those countries that have oil, not those that might actually pose a real threat?
From: "Frank Navarrete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] U.S. Military Is The Largest Consumer Of Oil On Earth
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:42:59 -0500
And thus a push for escalation. . . .
On 2/19/07, Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:U.S. Military Is The Largest Consumer Of Oil On Earth
The US military is completely addicted to oil. Unsurprisingly, its
oil consumption for aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and facilities
makes the Pentagon the single largest oil consumer in the world. By
the way, according to the 2006 CIA World Factbook rankings there are
only 35 countries (out of 210) in the world that consume more oil per
day than the Pentagon.
http://www.energybulletin.net/26194.html
Published on 17 Feb 2007 by Energy Bulletin. Archived on 17 Feb 2007.
US military oil pains
by Sohbet Karbuz
As of September 30, 2005 the US Air Force had 5,986 aircraft in service. (1)
At the beginning of 2006 the US Navy had 285 combat and support
ships, and around 4,000 operational aircraft (planes and
helicopters). (2)
At the end of 2005, the US Army had a combat vehicle fleet of
approximately 28,000 armored vehicles (tracked vehicles such as
Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles)(3). Besides those the
Army and the Marine corps have tactical wheeled vehicles such as
140,000 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The US Army has
also over 4,000 combat helicopters and several hundred fixed wing
aircraft.
Add all those also 187,493 fleet vehicles (4) (passenger cars,
busses, light trucks etc) the US Department of Defense (DOD) uses.
The issue is that except for 80 nuclear submarines and aircraft
carriers, almost all military fleet (including the ones that will be
joining in the next decade) run on oil.
Yes, the US military is completely addicted to oil. Unsurprisingly,
its oil consumption for aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and
facilities makes the Pentagon the single largest oil consumer in the
world. By the way, according to the 2006 CIA World Factbook rankings
there are only 35 countries (out of 210) in the world that consume
more oil per day than the Pentagon.
An interesting point is that even though there are only a few data
sources, how much oil the Pentagon really consumes is still kind of
puzzle, at least to me.(5)
According to recently released "Annual Energy Management Report", in
Fiscal Year 2006 the Pentagon consumed 320,000 barrels per day of
site delivered oil, compared to about 360,000 barrels per day in
2005. Note that these and all other official figures do not include
fuel obtained at no cost overseas(6), fuel consumed by
contractors(7), fuel consumed in some leased and privatized
facilities, and not last but least oil consumed by certain leased and
rented fleet vehicles.
While the official figures for military oil consumption went down in
2006, the costs went to the sky. In 2005 DoD had spent slightly over
$8.5 billion for oil but this figure reached $17 billion in 2006.
Note that oil accounts for 85% of the DoD's $20 billion energy
consumption costs in 2006.
Figure 1: The US military oil consumption and costs
Source: DESC Fact book (several issues), EIA Annual Energy Review
(several issues), Federal Energy Management Program Annual Report to
Congress FY2005 and FY2006, General Services Administration Federal
Fleet Report for Fiscal Year 2006, DoD Annual Energy Management
Report for Fiscal Year 2006. Note that cost figures are converted
into 2006 constant prices by using the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI
index.
Fortunately at least the cost part of US military oil consumption has
recently been getting attention. For example, Senator Dick Lugar's
website contains a section on "Oil and the Military."(8)
http://lugar.senate.gov/energy/security/military.html In there it is
stated that "Some of the energy related costs to the military include
protecting shipping lanes, ports, and fuel delivery convoys, as well
as transporting the fuel that provides power at military bases. In
total, the Department of Defense estimates that each $10 per barrel
increase in oil prices costs the U.S. military an additional $1.3
billion dollars."
I don't know what that $1.3 billion really contains but certainly not
the items listed. Because a) "every 10 dollar increase in the price
of a barrel of oil costs the United States Air Force $600 million"
(9) only, b) the US military [in 2003] "allocated $49.1 billion
annually to maintaining the capability to assure the flow of oil from
the Persian Gulf," (10), & c) DESC alone spends $1 million per day
just for transporting the fuel to delivery point (11), among others.
Since oil is a vital strategic commodity and since "DOD's consumption
of oil represents the highest priority of all uses, there will be no
fundamental limits to DOD's fuel supply for many, many decades."(12)
However, once the global peak is reached things will get a bit
complicated. In best case oil costs will bite the military budget
harder.
The good news is that the Pentagon is getting aware of its energy
problem and working towards finding solutions. For instance, the
Department of Defense is committed to achieving the energy reduction
goals set forth in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Executive Order
13123 "Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management,"
and the new (January 2007) Executive Order 13423 "Strengthening
Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management." To
that end several efforts are underway in an increasing pace and
aggressiveness.
The bad news is that most of those efforts concentrate mostly on
reducing energy use in buildings and facilities, whose share in total
DOD energy consumption is 25%, whereas mobility energy use accounts
for 75%.
Figure 2: Fuel shares in DOD buildings and facilities, and in total
energy consumption
Source: DoD Annual Energy management Report FY 2006, GSA Federal
Fleet Report FY 2006. Figures include exempt facilities and fleet
vehicles.
In buildings and facilities it is electricity that accounts for
almost half of the total energy use. Oil accounts for only 12%.
Overall, however, with its 77% share oil is the major fuel consumed
by DOD in 2006. Amongst the oil types, jet fuel followed by
distillate and heavy fuel oil make up the majority.
Figure 3: US military oil consumption by type
Source: DESC Fact book (several issues), EIA Annual Energy Review
(several issues), Federal Energy Management Program Annual Report to
Congress FY2005 and FY2006, General Services Administration Federal
Fleet Report for Fiscal Year 2006, DoD Annual Energy Management
Report for Fiscal Year 2006.
Searching for solutions, developing alternative fuels, working
towards mitigation, reducing energy costs, increasing renewable power
supplies, researching new power transmission, advanced battery as
well as propulsion technologies, decreasing energy dependency, and
increasing energy security etc are surely nice objectives that should
be pursued and promoted. But with moderation and by not forgetting
the most effective tools such as efficiency, conservation and change
in habits.
More importantly, DoD should get its priorities right for its energy
strategy (if there exists any) and should concentrate its efforts
more on where the biggest pain is. That pain is oil. The time has
come to wake up because Peak Oil is around the corner and now time is
oil.
Footnotes
1 2006 US Air Force Almanac.
2 2006 US Navy Almanac.
3 The Army's Future Combat Systems Program and Alternatives.
Congressional Budget Office, the United States Congress. August 2006.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/74xx/doc7461/08-02-Army.pdf
4 Including commercially and GSA leased vehicles, but excluding
vehicles leased less than 60 days. General Services Administration,
Federal Fleet Report - Fiscal Year 2006.
5 The core official data sources are: Department of Defense's annual
energy management report; Federal Energy Management Program's annual
report to Congress; EIA/DOE's Annual Energy Review; and DoD Defense
Energy Support Center's Factbook. The former three publications are
more or less consistent with each other (after some modifications
such as adding fleet vehicle oil consumption to non-fleet vehicles
etc). But the latter publication is the most important one, not an
easy read though.
6 For example Kuwait supplied US military in Iraq with "fuel at no
cost. Later, the Kuwaitis sought nominal payment for fuel supplied to
US forces remaining in Iraq after Saddam's ouster." Agence France
Presse, "Kuwait and U.S. Locked in Dispute Over Fuel Payment," Arab
News, March 17, 2005.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=60548&d=17&m=3&y=2005
7 Note that there are 100,000 contractors working for the Pentagon in Iraq.
8 The charts on Senator's site need an update.
9 Major Gen Frank R. Faykes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget,
Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, for Financial
Management, Comptroller, "Inside the Air Force Budget", Air & Space
Conference and Technology Exposition, Washington, D.C., September 26,
2006.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=60548&d=17&m=3&y=2005
10 Testimony of Milton R. Copulos, President of National Defense
Council Foundation, before the Senate Foreign relations Committee,
March 30, 2006.
11 Defense Energy Support Center, Fact Book FY2005.
12 More Capable Warfighting Through Reduced Fuel Burden, Office of
the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and
Logistics, The Defense Science Board Task Force on Improving Fuel
Efficiency of Weapons Platforms, January 2001.
http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/fuel.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also the 6 February post of Sohbet's blog Fill up the B-52 with
Synthetic Fuel, about the progress of US Air Force trials with
synthetic aviation fuel - and no, its not cheaper. -LJ
http://karbuz.blogspot.com/2007/02/fill-up-b-52-with-synthetic-fuel.html
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