The US Military’s Fossil Fuel Consumption
Yoora Jeong ’27
Victoria Kenton ’25 & Christine Wu ’25
When we think of the negative effects of fossil fuels, we usually point toward evil private corporations seeking maximum profit with them at the expense of our environment. While the private sector is responsible for a substantial amount of pollution, we should not ignore the fact that public entities also consume a large amount of fossil fuels. The military is a perfect example, with the U.S. military being the big elephant of fossil fuel consumption.
Defense is one of the biggest priorities in the U.S.. In 2017 alone, the Air Force spent $4.9 billion for fuel, the Navy $2.8 billion, the Army $947 million, and the Marines $36 million, which in total took well over 12 percent of the national budget (Neimark et al., 2019). Unfortunately, the allocation of an enormous budget resulted in massive environmental consequences. In 2017, the U.S. military purchased an average of 269,230 barrels of oil each day, producing 25,000 kilotons of greenhouse gasses (Neimark et al., 2019). To put this number into perspective, the military uses the same amount of gas in a single day as 2300 homes or 4600 vehicles do in a whole year. For the U.S., these are massive amounts that far outnumber many other countries. If the fossil fuel pollution produced by the United States were treated as a single country, it would be ranked as the world's 47th largest consumer (Lewis, 2021).
The question then becomes: Why does the U.S. military need so much fossil fuels? To begin, the Army possesses a total of 225,000 ground combat vehicles in its inventory (Kambrod, 2021), and every other branch of the military requires transportation or functional vehicles, from aircraft to massive ships, all of which rely on fossil fuels. Pollution also results from the production of vehicles, which require fossil fuels and a staggering number of harmful chemicals, such as perchlorate, a vital component of jet fuel, which contaminates soil and any neighboring water supplies (Lewis, 2021). When it comes to military vehicles, maximum performance takes priority over sustainability. Along with transportation, numerous military bases serve as a power supply and a place of residence. As of 2021, there are 400-500 U.S. military bases on the mainland and 750 overseas, as well as equipment within, all of which are powered by fossil fuels (Mathieson, 2021). Astoundingly, this is only an example of fossil fuel usage in one military unit.
By looking at the extent of the military's consumption of fossil fuels, we can see that the responsibility for addressing environmental concerns must also apply to public entities, such as the military. Fortunately, through a variety of measures, the U.S. military can and is making substantial efforts to cut fossil fuel and reconcile with the environment. There are now numerous climate literacy programs that promote environmental consciousness within the military, which will play a major role in building collective efforts to minimize pollution (Lacdan, 2022). For instance, public vehicles that emit a large quantity of pollution are undergoing major modifications for an effective reduction of emissions. As of 2022, the U.S. military is actively prototyping hybrid electric vehicles, which have been shown to consume 20% less fossil fuel without compromising performance and providing additional benefits such as lower noise levels (Jones-Bonbrest, 2022). As the U.S. military continues to recognize fossil fuel dependency as a major societal concern, current and future initiatives will be a big step forward for the public sector pursuing environmental action.
References
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Kambrod, Matthew. "Replace Fossil Fuels for the Military? Not So Fast." Defense News, 19 Aug. 2022,
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Lacdan, Joseph. "Army Introduces Strategy to Combat Climate Change Threats.", 10 Feb. 2022, U.S. Army,
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Neimark et al., "The US Military is a Bigger Polluter Than More Than 100 Countries Combined." Quartz, 28 June 2019,
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