In response to "Sustainability saves money" on Oct. 21, it seems the military has recently come to a similar realization about the practicality of sustainability. Last Friday, a Navy assault ship made the service's first bio-fuel powered voyage. The test was part of a larger Navy effort to create what it calls a great green fleet.

The success comes only a few weeks after the deployment of an environmentally friendly Marine company in Afghanistan, the launch of a hybrid warship and a strong commitment by the Air Force to use bio-fuel.

Though it has acknowledged other concerns such as climate change, the military's main reason for this environmental push is utility. Transporting fuel to distant war zones is expensive — up to 400 times the cost of the gas itself. Perhaps more importantly, there is the ever-present risk of fuel convoys being ambushed. One Army study found that for every 24 convoys that set out, a soldier or civilian died.

The implications of this effort are far greater than mere practicality. It represents a rare victory of reason in the history of American energy policy in a conservative institution critical to the fate of the nation. The military has realized that an addiction to fossil fuels is not sensible. It wreaks havoc on the climate, requires enormous investment of American dollars in often hostile countries and puts the lives of our warriors at risk across the globe. The military's decision to push for alternative energy is logical, both for a soldier in a fuel convoy in Afghanistan and for a country with a dangerous addiction to fossil fuels.

M. Ford Van Fossan, Trappe