Seven years ago, after leading the initial campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, General James Mattis, now the commander of U.S. Central Command, called on the Department of Defense to “unleash us from the tether of fuel.”
Just last week on June 7th, General David Petraeus, echoed that call in a memo to all U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. “Energy is the lifeblood of our warfighting capabilities,” he said, noting that high fuel use means risks for the mission and for each Service member and civilian. “We can and will do better,” he directed.
Maj. Sean M. Sadlier (left) of the U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office explains the solar power element of the Expeditionary Forward Operating Base concept to Col. Anthony Fernandez during the testing phase of this sustainable energy initiative. May 19, 2010.
In the years between those two statements, the Department of Defense has in fact taken steps to improve our use of energy in military operations. But General Petraeus is right: we can and will do better.
And that is why, earlier today, we released “Energy for the Warfighter,” the Department of Defense’s first Operational Energy Strategy. The Strategy sets the overall direction for DoD’s energy use in military operations.
Every military capability, every mission, and every Service member depends on a reliable supply of energy. Last year, that meant the Department consumed some 5 billion gallons of fuel, at a cost of $13 billion. The money we spend on energy not only costs the taxpayer, it costs the warfighter. A dollar spent on increased energy costs is a dollar not spent on other warfighting priorities.
Fonte: White House