August 18, 2011
Measuring Our Oil Addiction by more than just Dollars and Cents
When we think about the cost of our nation’s addiction to foreign oil, we’re usually talking in dollars and cents. But all too often, Americans overlook the greatest cost of this dependence – the American soldiers killed or wounded while protecting oil shipping lanes in the Middle East.
In yesterday’s special report – For the military, clean energy saves lives – CNN reports that one out of eight U.S. soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq between 2003-2007 were protecting fuel convoys.
This is the sobering reality and the true costs of our addiction; the United States not only pays for oil with billions of dollars every year, but also with the lives of our military men and women.
(Ret.) General Wesley K. Clark – who serves as the co-chair for Growth Energy, has written and spoken extensively about these hidden costs. In his recent essay, “The World According to Biofuels,” he breaks down the evolution of the first U.S. military involvement in the Middle East which led to the establishment of the Fifth Fleet– a fleet whose sole purpose is to monitor and protect oil shipping routes.
And, earlier this year, Reuters reported that U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the need to protect oil shipping lanes and transfer fuel to military bases in Afghanistan seriously endangers our troops: for every 24 convoys that transports fuel to military bases in Afghanistan, one American soldier is killed or wounded.
Our nation has an obligation to protect our men and women in uniform. We can help fulfill this obligation by investing in alternative fuels, like ethanol, that are homegrown and don’t need to be protected by soldiers when being transported from the farm field to your gas tank.
The recent commitment from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy of up to $510 million to boost biofuel production shows this Administration’s dedication to reducing our dependence on foreign oil and strengthening our national security through the use of homegrown renewable fuels. But we must also continue to provide a market for grain ethanol, which currently provides ten percent of our nation’s fuel supply and has the capacity and efficiency to do more if barriers to the market are removed.
A firm investment in renewable fuels will not only keep more dollars and cents in our pockets but it will save the lives of our military men and women – undeniably, a worthy investment.
