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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: Next to a River
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:58 pm Post subject: U.S. Military Orders Less Dependence on Fossil Fuels |
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With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.
Last week, a Marine company from California arrived in the rugged outback of Helmand Province bearing novel equipment: portable solar panels that fold up into boxes; energy-conserving lights; solar tent shields that provide shade and electricity; solar chargers for computers and communications equipment.
The 150 Marines of Company I, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, will be the first to take renewable technology into a battle zone, where the new equipment will replace diesel and kerosene-based fuels that would ordinarily generate power to run their encampment. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/science/earth/05fossil.html?_r=1&src=me&&scp=1&sq=military%20solar%20afghanistan&st=cse |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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If you must wage war, it's better that you do it in a way that doesn't harm the planet. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: Next to a River
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, it is.
Also many of tech developments occured first in the military and then moved over to the civilian industry.
Here's hoping the same will occur. If the US military ends up becoming non reliant on oil based products, then maybe our nations will end up doing the same.
Also from a military point it makes great sense, self contained, bases. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map
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Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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Summer Wine wrote: |
Yes, it is.
Also many of tech developments occured first in the military and then moved over to the civilian industry.
Here's hoping the same will occur. If the US military ends up becoming non reliant on oil based products, then maybe our nations will end up doing the same.
Also from a military point it makes great sense, self contained, bases. |
First military applications, then next maybe medical, industrial, what have you.
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�Every time you cut a ship away from the need to visit an oiler � a fuel supply ship � you create an advantage,� said Mr. Mabus, noting that the Navy had pioneered previous energy transformations in the United States, from sail power to coal power in the 19th century, as well as from coal to oil and oil to nuclear power in the 20th century. |
Afghanistan might end up paying for itself:
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The Marines are exploring solar-powered water purification systems and looking into the possibility of building a small-scale, truck-based biofuel plant that could transform local crops � like illegal poppies � into fuel. |
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mc_jc

Joined: 13 Aug 2009 Location: C4B- Cp Red Cloud, Area-I
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Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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The article is mere windowdressing- it would take years to outfit every vehicle and every piece of machinery with the specifications for alternative fuels.
Fuel is now being airlifted from Tadjikistan and Kyrgyzstan on an hourly basis with fuel provided by pipeline from Azerbaijan to these countries.
The attacks on the fuel supplies has only forced IFOR to bring it in elsewhere. |
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brickabrack
Joined: 17 May 2010
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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^^^
what I'm saying.
Hate to be a debbie downer, but it is only lip service to an extent.
Nations will depend on the black gold until it runs dry and the
oil gods that own that stuff will have had there foot
in alt energies long enough to continue raping and pillaging the
planet. |
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Hotwire
Joined: 29 Aug 2010 Location: Multiverse
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:07 am Post subject: |
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Sorry but you have to love the Irony.
Hey we just waged an illegal war over control of oil supply.
Now - Don't go wasting oil to wage war! |
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The Happy Warrior
Joined: 10 Feb 2010
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:11 am Post subject: |
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Hotwire wrote: |
Sorry but you have to love the Irony.
Hey we just waged an illegal war over control of oil supply.
Now - Don't go wasting oil to wage war! |
This is the Afghanistan war. |
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mc_jc

Joined: 13 Aug 2009 Location: C4B- Cp Red Cloud, Area-I
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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The dependence on foreign oil supplies is one of the downsides of the conflict right now, since many of the coutries where we request oil and fuel refuse to fill those requests because of the unpopularity of the wars right now.
I had a meeting with both Russian and Chinese oil suppliers recently to ask if they would like to submit paperwork for a contract to supply NATO and IFOR with fuel. Both of these suppliers refused because they didn't want to get involved (Pres. Medvedev of Russia had told the regional supplier in Central Asia not to deal with the coalition forces)...I wished YUKOS was still in business.
Luckily, the Azeris are more than willing to help, not to mention the Kazakhs.
The Khyber Pass border pass onto A1 just opened back up after C-JCoS, Adm. Mullins, warned that if any more trucks get torched, drone strikes would be targeting the areas within metropolitan Peshawar and Lahore and that the US would withdraw its transportation contract from the Pakistani companies- I think the Pakistanis were more threatened by the drone strikes on their cities than the loss of contract money. |
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brickabrack
Joined: 17 May 2010
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175310/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_base_desires_in_afghanistan/
Plans by the Pentagon to spend billions of dollars upgrading and expanding the network of forward operating bases in Afghanistan suggest that the military's long-term strategy differs greatly from the July 2011 drawdown promised by President Barack Obama. From runways and helicopter parking to PXs and dog kennels, these bases are becoming too permanent for an imminent withdrawal.
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Plans from the beginning (decades of planning) have been to be in Af for a long time. Just like Iraq. There is no plans for full withdrawal anytime soon. Ask our DoD ESL counterpart stationed there. MC, how long is your tour?
Sorry if you were one of the 'believers' in said change. This Obama guy is probably even worse off for the country than W. "We've only just begun....."
Above plans will consume a lot of oil. Your govt thinks you're stupid. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map
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Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:59 pm Post subject: |
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Documents reveal that this sort of expansion is now going on at a remarkably rapid pace all over the country. For instance, major expansions of infrastructure to support helicopter operations, including increased apron space, taxiways, and tarmac for parking, servicing, loading, and unloading are planned for facilities like FOB Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province, FOB Dwyer, a Marine base in Helmand Province, and FOB Sharana, a Paktika Province base near the Pakistani border, where the Army also announced plans for the construction of an ammunition supply facility, with storage space for one million pounds of munitions, and related infrastructure. |
What a waste. |
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