Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter One: National Energy Insecurity 7oil. 15 To make matters worse, modern weapons tend to use highly refinedfuels—it takes almost two barrels of crude oil to make one barrel of militaryjet fuel. 16 And they also use fuels voraciously—the fuel consumption of a modernmain battle tank, for example, is measured in gallons per mile, not milesper gallon. Despite such vast fuel requirements, today’s military stockpilesare miniscule (in 1978, about one month’s peacetime use). 17 Securing the fuelsthat enable our military establishment to fulfill its national security missionis thus a matter of direct and intense concern to the Pentagon. 18Furthermore, secure and equitable access to adequate energy is vital alsoto preserve national and global economic and political stability 19 —withoutwhich turmoil, revolutionary doctrines, and political extremism can flourish.Fair access to energy is also essential to ensure that competing domesticinterests within a diverse society are resolved peacefully—lest civil disorders,domestic terrorism, or an erosion of mutual respect and governmental legitimacyput at risk the democratic process that is itself a cherished nationalinterest. In an era when simply having to wait in line to buy gasoline has ledsome Americans to shoot each other, while others must choose dailybetween heating and eating, this hazard to our most deeply held politicalvalues cannot be taken lightly. 20 A nation without shared and durable principles,social cohesion, economic integrity, and a sustainable system of productionis weakened in the world: 21 it may find itself unable to preserve, orforced to choose between, its most vital national interests.Directly and indirectly, therefore, energy security is a pillar of nationalstrength. The commitment of tens of billions of dollars for a Rapid DeploymentForce for the Mideast oilfields bespeaks military planners’ anxiety.Yet few of those planners see vital energy security objectives as being achievableprimarily by military means. 22 The Defense Department’s 1978 AnnualReport calls instead for a primarily domestic, civilian solution to the energyproblem: expansion of domestic fuel reserves, diversification, substitution,conservation, and stockpiling. 23 Thus the Pentagon has pragmatically recognizedthat stronger armies cannot achieve energy security. What thePentagon has not yet recognized is that civilian energy planners, focusingexclusively on foreign oil, tend to propose substitutes that armies will be evenless able to defend. This book describes instead an approach to energy securitythat will both enhance military preparedness and make it less necessary.All authors must set boundaries to their subject. The important topics notconsidered here include, among others,•U.S. military and defense policy and the threats it addresses; 24• most of the social, political, and psychological dimensions of preparedness; 25