The US military's energy security initiatives appear to be picking up steam as volatile oil prices increasingly lead to budget shortfalls and threaten troop readiness. In the past few years the US Air Force (USAF) has taken the lead on efforts to reduce the US military's reliance on oil-based fuels, launching an ambitious synthetic fuels initiative. Now, however, the US Army and US Navy are also jumping into efforts to reduce energy consumption after oil prices jumped from USD70 to USD 150 and then retreated back to USD70 in the past year. "The change in the price per barrel forfuel was dramatic, and [for] all the services it was a difficult thing to accommodate in the budget, but we know we should be able to get our arms around it," Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, Pat Tamburinno, told Jane's on 17 November.
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