By Kerry Trueman

Environmentalists have found an unlikely ally in their battle to free our nation from its fossil fuel addiction: the U.S. military. Turns out the folks who are risking their lives for a war that everyone pretty much agrees is about oil are eager to make the switch to renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

Getting the army and navy to curb their carbon footprints would be a real coup; between the two of them, they’re the largest energy consumer in the United States. McClatchy News reports that the Department of Defense ran up “an energy bill of $13.6 billion last year,” and adds that “the military services and other components of the defense establishment consume the equivalent of 340,000 barrels of oil a day.”

Just think, if the military industrial complex ceased to be a petro-based proposition, we could stop worrying about who’s sitting on the world’s remaining petroleum reserves and get on with fighting global warming. For more on how to do just that, go to fightglobalwarming.com.