A bitching soldier is a happy soldier.
But it does chew up a lot of bread.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=7570
Not entirely related, but something interesting to consider - the energy use in primary ore smelt for materials. Aluminum is an energy soaking beast (makes sense when you figure it is rocket fuel). Why is steel important? We can make metric fucktons more than aluminum.
Although the implications of the destruction of the aluminum industry in America are that the production capacity of China takes over …. Problem is that they derive most of their electricity from coal. China has to internally gimmick their power costs to make aluminum competitive with American primary ore smelt.