The Department of Defense meets peak oil

Among the largest consumers of energy in the world is the US Department of Defense (DoD). It uses about 4 percent of the fuel consumed in the US . Planes, ships, tanks, trucks, bases

One report, however, does not change an institution the size of DoD. It is doubtful that, prior to last week, more than a handful of people had read it and still fewer had grasped its import. You have to start somewhere, so just examining the problems of keeping bases running with diminished energy supplies is as good a place as any. While this report and the Assured Fuels Initiative are a beginning, they do not seriously address the potential consequences of peak oil or the role DoD will have to play in the coming crisis.

Despite many people’s negative opinion of the US Defense establishment, it can, when properly motivated, be one of America ’s greatest assets. Remember how it recruited, organized, equipped, trained and deployed 14 million men and women to fight in World War II. Remember the Manhattan Project, jet transport planes, digital computers, the Internet. The last 70 years have seen outpouring of innovation from DoD projects that, for good or ill, has made much of the world the way it is today. It is fair to say that Defense and its associated agencies have been the number one priority of the United States since the Pearl Harbor attack. Among the many things all these trillions of dollars have or have not accomplished, one clear result has been the demonstrated capability to plan and manage very large projects