Fueling the war economy

By the time a gallon of gas--purchased wholesale from, say, ExxonMobil for 84 cents per gallon--gets to Afghanistan, the US Military has paid around $600 for each gallon. In Iraq, fuel is a bit cheaper, at $150/gallon. Consider: a single Abrams tank driving one mile per hour en route from the southern border of Iraq to Baghdad racks up gas costs of $60,000. To cut costs, a special army unit is teaming up with GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler to develop a line of military vehicles that are gas-electric or diesel-electric hybrids. Hopefully this technology will trickle back to the States where it can be used in the top-selling product rollout from the last Gulf War, the gas-guzzling Humvee.