Afghanistan
Forward bases use petroleum because there’s no grid
Sarewitz and Thernstrom 2012 – *Co-Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University, **Senior Climate Policy Advisor, Clean Air Task Force (March, Daniel and Samuel, “Energy Innovation at the Department of Defense: Assessing the Opportunities”, http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Energy%20Innovation%20at%20DoD.pdf)
Alternative Fuels
Liquid fuels are indispensable for the U.S. military. Nuclear ¶ reactors power submarines and aircraft carriers; otherwise ¶ the Navy’s ships run on petroleum. So do all types of aircraft, ¶ trucks, and combat vehicles. Military installations buy electrical ¶ power, when they can, from local utilities, but diesel generators ¶ provide essential backup—and are the main power source at ¶ forward bases that lack grid connections. Direct consumption ¶ of petroleum accounted for more than three-quarters of DoD’s ¶ energy use in fiscal 2010, costing $13.4 billion.¶ 11
Even so, given adequate forward planning, DoD has little ¶ reason to fear constraints on supply of petroleum-based fuels ¶ for several decades, perhaps many. A tightening international ¶ oil market, resulting in continuing price increases, would pose ¶ greater difficulties for other segments of the U.S. economy and ¶ society, and for other countries. DoD’s expenditures on fuel may ¶ seem large, but should be viewed in the context of other routine ¶ expenditures. Even for the Air Force, the principal consumer with ¶ its fleet of nearly 6,000 planes, fuel accounts for only around ¶ one-fifth of operations and maintenance costs.¶ 12
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