The Highest Costs of Oil

I found this article about Army energy when some helpful folks at the Pentagon recommended I seek out the "Green Hawks". Immediately I found James Wolsey, CIA chief under Bill Clinton, and I remembered an earlier article describing how Wolsey and several other conservative government senior leaders had taken to driving hybrids. Why? Not because they had turned into Birkenstock-wearing peace mongers, but rather because they decided foreign oil was hurting the country. Big time. And they were going to start doing something about it.

This is the quote that really got me, though, and it's not from Wolsey. Actually, it's a paraphrase. Dan Nolan, who runs energy-related projects for the US Army's Rapid Equipping Force, said it was not until the cost of fuel was measured in American blood that the commanders started to understand the real cost of that fuel. Nolan then continued:

“Our transports have never been as vulnerable and exposed as they are in Iraq. More oil is not the solution, it is the problem.”

Read the article to catch some of the great adjustments and adaptions Nolan and company have made. Some of these are Iraq specific. Others indicate a new approach to powering field units that will now be part of Army doctrine in every theater.