Battling Fuel Waste in the Military

The report 'Battling Fuel Waste in the Military' by Amory Lovins (RMI) argues that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) suffers from systemic fuel inefficiency due to a failure to account for the high cost of fuel delivery (logistics). By ignoring these costs during the design of weapons platforms and ships, the DOD maintains inefficient equipment that increases operational costs and inhibits warfighting capability. The author suggests that adopting fuel-saving technologies and 'green design' could save billions of dollars annually and improve military agility and security.

• The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest energy user in the United States, consuming 1% of all national energy, and is likely the world's largest buyer of oil.
• A critical systemic failure in DOD procurement is the assumption that the cost of delivering fuel to platforms is zero, which understates the actual delivered fuel cost by an average factor of at least three, and sometimes by hundreds.
• Fuel delivery costs are disproportionately high for specific operations; for example, in FY1999, the Air Force spent 84% of its fuel-delivery budget on the 6% of fuel delivered via midair refueling.
• Inefficient tank designs increase logistical burdens and vulnerability; an armored division may use 20 to 40 times more daily tons of fuel than munitions, requiring approximately $3.2 billion annually to maintain 60,000 personnel just to move that fuel.
• A study of the USS Princeton, an Aegis cruiser, indicated that retrofitting motors, pumps, fans, chillers, and lights could save 20–50% of the ship's electricity, potentially reducing total fuel use by 10–25%.
• Comprehensive military fuel efficiency improvements could save over $10 billion per year by reducing direct fuel costs and significantly lowering fuel delivery expenses.

APA

Lovins, A. (2001). Battling Fuel Waste in the Military. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_S01-12_BattlingFuelWaste.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, Amory. Battling Fuel Waste in the Military. RMI, 2001. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_S01-12_BattlingFuelWaste.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lovins |first1=Amory |title=Battling Fuel Waste in the Military |publisher=RMI |date=2001 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_S01-12_BattlingFuelWaste.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovins2001battling, author = {Lovins, Amory}, title = {{Battling Fuel Waste in the Military}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2001}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_S01-12_BattlingFuelWaste.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }