Found this article on Department of Defense fuel usage. I've just begun reading it, thought I'd post it up. They are speculating that there is no change in crude availability over the next 25 years, based on current trends, and barring any problems crude prices are expected to settle back down to the 40-50 dollar a barrel range. BUT, and here's the important part, it looks like the DoD is not going to wait 25 years to solve the problem of US dependence on foreign oil. This report specifies that US dependence on fossil fuels is a national defense problem and must be addressed and overcome.
The real thing about this is, if the military is going to reduce its usage, then it will be looking for a technological solution. Military solutions to problems shared by Civilian Street, usually show up on the civvie side. And, while the military is swayed by contractors in general, they aren't going to be swayed by the oil companies in their search to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. I see this article as a huge positive so far, and I'm just at the beginning! Believe me, when the military goes to a major contractor and says "make this work on 40 percent less fuel", they will bust their hineys to make it work on 40 percent less fuel so they can get that multimillion dollar contract, knowing that they will own the technology paid for by the government for adaptation to the civilian market. Why has this not happened before? The article addresses this on the first couple of pages, where it says fuel costs are about 3 percent of the total military budget, and have just now begun to be felt. The military's not addressed this yet, because fuel costs have not affected them yet!
That's right, there are forces more powerful than the oil companies, and one is the US military contracting system!
Hey, several pages down the report flips 90 degrees. When you get to that point right click in the body of the message, then select "rotate clockwise" once. It'll straighten it out.
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