A tidbit for bellyaching at the bar. Turns out the price of a gallon of gas at the pump is just a down payment. The rest is hidden in taxes. And patriot dead.
How much is spent by the Pentagon to secure oil brought to the USA?
The US military spends trillions of dollars to secure oil supplies, patrolling sea-lanes and fighting wars, while denying oil as the motive.
Peter Maass at Foreign Policy combed through the Defense Department’s data:
…which is not easy to do because the Pentagon does not disaggregate its expenditures by region or mission — and came up with a total, over three decades, of $7.3 trillion. Yes, trillion.
And that’s just a partial accounting of peacetime spending.
It’s far trickier to figure out the extent to which America’s wars are linked to oil and then put a price tag on it.
There has also never been an accounting of costs accrued through Congress, federal agencies and state or local government which would include land grants, capital subsidies or tax incentives, as well as, er, effect of pollution on health… numerous spills and clean-up …or, of course, the astounding fee of a too hot planet.
How would US policy change if the true cost of oil was acknowledged?