The Hill News

The United States military is the single largest purchaser of petroleum fuel in the world, burning through about 325,000 barrels of fuel per day. Almost all of that fuel is derived from oil. This is important not because of the vast carbon footprint (or boot print) that the military has â€" a separate, and important problem. It is actually the dependence on oil that presents the military with a long-term strategic risk.
 
Although today the military is able to buy fuel for operations anywhere around the world, access to oil is not guaranteed in the future. Finite global reserves of oil means that some time in the future, oil may become physically more difficult to acquire, no matter the price. Related to that risk, the military, like all consumers in the U.S., relies on oil from countries that do not align with our interests. This affects our foreign policy and undermines our national security. It also means that, in a shooting war, when our fighting men and wo! men need access to fuel to effectively fight, we may not be able to guarantee access to the fuel we need. We can no longer afford totake it as a given that oil will always be available.

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