U.S. military operations to protect oil imports coming from the
Middle East are creating larger amounts of greenhouse gas
emissions than once thought, new research from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln shows. Regulators do not currently attribute
these emissions to U.S. gasoline use - but they should, the
authors say. UNL researchers Adam Liska and Richard Perrin
estimate that emissions of heat-trapping gases resulting from
military protection of supertankers in the Persian Gulf amount
to 34.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year.
In addition, the war in Iraq releases another 43.3 million
metric tons of CO2 annually. "Our conservative estimate of
emissions from military security alone raises the greenhouse gas
intensity of gasoline derived from imported Middle Eastern oil
by 8 to 18 percent," said Liska, UNL assistant professor of
biological systems engineering, and coordinator of the Energy
Sciences minor. "In order to have a balanced assessment of the
climate change impacts of substitut