The Wall Street Journal reports that a B-1 bomber (awesomely code-named Dark 33*) became the first plane to break the sound barrier using synthetic jet fuel. The flight is another milestone in a strategy to replace oil-derived fuel. While synfuel might help the military reduce its vulnerability to OPEC, it will get the U.S. no closer to a sustainable energy future.

In case you thought our armed forces grew an environmental conscience, the drivers have much more to do with fuel prices and peak oil than inconvenient truths. According to WSJ, military spending on fuel has more than doubled in just a few years, from $5 billion in 2004 to $12 billion in 2007. It is also the single largest U.S. consumer of oil.

With foreign oil being the backbone of military power, any sudden shortage of the stuff would devastate its ability to operate worldwide. From the Journal: "U.S. forces in Iraq alone consume 40,000 barrels of oil a day trucked in from neighboring countries, and would be paralyzed without it."

The source of the fake-fuel is most likely to come from coal or natural gas. The process of making synthetic fuels can emit up to twice as much greenhouse gases, according to the WSJ article. Smartly, the energy bill passed last December, includes a clause that bars the governments from buying synfuel that creates more emissions than petroleum. Even with this provision, though, it's clear that synthetic fuels will to little to reduce the carbon footprint of our military.

Some mistake "energy security" for "energy sustainability." To me, energy security, in the case of oil, essentially means being immune to high oil prices and insulating ourselves from politically unstable regions of the world. It leaves the door wide open to very un-eco activities like mountaintop removal coal mining and drilling in ANWR. Energy sustainability is a much trickier balance of carbon-cutting, protecting the environment, and weaning ourselves from foreign oil supplies.

In 2003, the Department of Defense warned that abrupt climate change, with rising sea levels, disrupted energy supplies and shortages of food and water, "could potentially de-stabilize the geo-political environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints." Until energy security and energy sustainability are synonymous, our military, economy, and world will be no more secure.


*Dark 33 also rumored to be Dick Cheney's eBay user name.