(Repeats Thursday story with no change to text)

By Rebekah Kebede

NEW YORK, Dec 06 (Reuters) - New U.S. military energy conservation measures could cut escalating war costs and the number of deaths for troops transporting fuel in combat zones, according to experts.

Spending on fuel for U.S. combat forces in Iraq surged 27 percent over the past year to $1.17 billion, according to the Defense Energy Support Center, a figure dwarfed by the associated costs of transporting and protecting the fuel on its way to the troops.

"The Department of Defense's problem with petroleum is that they use too much of it. So much of it, that it is a burden on our operational forces," said Tom Morehouse, an energy consultant affiliated with the Institute for Defense Analyses.

The U.S. military is working on cutting fuel demand by insulating tents with spray foam and by using hybrid generators to produce electricity, according to Dan Nolan of the U.S. Army's Rapid Equipping Force.

"You talk about those things and everyone thinks about the Birkenstock wearing tree-huggers," said Nolan, who heads up the military task force charged with cutting energy use. "What we have the opportunity to do is change the culture, change how people think about this."

The military currently pays around $2.23 a gallon for fuel, but that skyrockets to over $20 a gallon when the cost of shipping to the Middle East and protecting it until it arrives is added, experts said.

"The delivered price of fuel is about 10 times more than the actual price," said Sherri Goodman, a member of the Defense Science Board which advises the U.S. Department of Defense.

By reducing fuel use, Nolan hopes to not only ease the military's energy budget but to reduce the number of casualties from improvised explosive devices against troops convoying fuel in the war zones.

"At the tactical level, they are looking at the burdened cost of fuel in blood," said Nolan. "There are a lot of people working on convoy protection and a lot of it is more armor, more guns, more surveillance."

"Let's make less targets out there," he said. "We think the best way to beat an IED is don't be there when it goes off."

Using spray foam to insulate tents will help cut fuel needed for air conditioning, which accounts for up 90 percent of military diesel use in Iraq, Nolan said.

Nolan's team is also testing Tactical Hybrid Electrical Power Stations that use a combination of solar, wind, and diesel, and Tactical Garbage to Energy Reactor capable of turning soldiers garbage into power.

Trial units of both will be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in early 2008.

The military is also installing auxiliary power units on combat vehicles used as stationary lookout posts to reduce the fuel used by their main engines.

"Frequently, the tanks are just sitting on a street corner manning a checkpoint. And all they're doing is running their air conditioning and their radio," said Scott Pugh, a retired Navy Captain and member of the Defense Science Board.

"It's like using a 747 jet engine to run your TV." (Editing by Matthew Robinson and Jim Marshall)

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