Navy secretary: For every 50 convoys of gasoline, we lose a Marine

Ray Mabus, Secretary of the U.S. Navy, said at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0 that the military needed to end its dependence on fossil fuels.

"And it’s costly, but it’s costly in more ways than just money," he said. "We import gasoline more than anything else – gasoline and water – more than anything else into Afghanistan. For every 50 convoys of gasoline we bring in, we lose a Marine. We lose a Marine, killed or wounded. That is too high a price to pay for fuel."

Mabus plans to have the Navy and Marine Corps produce at least half of its energy from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2020. He noted that Marines in Afghanistan had been able to reduce their fossil fuel usage anywhere from 25 to 90 percent by using solar panels.

Watch video, via WindSector, below:

The full text of his speech can be read here (PDF).