Non-Subscriber Extract
Future generation: US alternative energy development
By Caitlin Harrington
22 August 2007
In his 2006 State of the Union address, US President George Bush surprised critics of his proconsumption energy policy by describing the nation as "addicted to oil" and calling on the Department of Energy to aggressively seek energy alternatives.
Sceptical US journalists and Washington-based energy analysts have since questioned whether the president who recently authorised a multibillion dollar arms deal with six oil-producing Middle Eastern regimes is serious about reducing US consumption of foreign oil.
They doubt whether the Bush administration, which in 2001 took the position that high oil consumption is "an American way of life", would be willing to invest major resources in efforts to reduce foreign oil dependence.
More than a year later, however, a US government agency with no formal role in domestic energy regulation - the US Department of Defense - appears poised to prove those critics wrong. The Pentagon has emerged as a leader behind some of the Bush administration's most promising efforts to break the US oil addiction.
The US Air Force (USAF), Army and Navy (USN) are each spearheading fast-paced initiatives to develop new energy-saving technology and synthetic fuels that will reduce US military reliance on oil. Taking the strategy a step further, senior Pentagon officials have also begun to articulate plans for creating a commercial market for the production of alternative fuels for civilian and commercial uses.
At the June 2007 Paris Air Show, for example, USAF Secretary Michael Wynne and Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey held a joint press conference to urge traditional fuel suppliers and alternative energy companies to produce an efficient synthetic fuel for commercial and military aviation.
Sceptics may ask what incentive the Pentagon has to pursue in earnest a range of energy alternative programmes. The exploding cost of the US military's oil consumption was the number one reason cited by senior US defence officials.
"There are several major drivers here, but number one is - let's face it - cost," William Anderson, the USAF Assistant Secretary for Installations, Environment and Logistics told Jane's.
The US military is the single largest fuel consumer in the US; the Pentagon spent USD10.9 billion on energy supplies in Fiscal Year 2005 (FY05). Every USD10 dollar increase in the price of a barrel of oil costs the US military one billion dollars in operating costs.
Equally burdensome are the indirect costs of US dependence on foreign oil. Estimates of the US military's annual investment in the troops, infrastructure and other assets needed to secure US and allied access to oil in the Middle East range from USD44.4 billion to more than USD150 billion a year.