I’m sure this is one of those “follow the money” deals.
You know the outfits with these contracts are supporting Dems.
But you have to give the Chicago Mob credit, they do a full court press of corruption.
I wonder if they did a study on the effects this fuel has on the life of ship and aircraft engines? We know the garbage we use in cars in some parts of the country affect their engines.
It's so strange how some people look at something like this, $3.60 vs $26.00 and try to make a big deal out of it. We're only talking about 900 thousand gallons, $3.24 vs $23.4 million dollars total cost. That's only 7.22 times as much. Cheese whiz...
The expression of these views aren't an example of a human brain on crack. They're the expression of a human brain on 'save the planetitis', essentially Marxism. What a wonderful filter for the human brain Marxism is. /s
Navy Takes Biofuels Campaign Into Uncharted Waters
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2011/January/Pages/NavyTakesBiofuelsIntoUnchartedWaters.aspx
Since 2006, the Defense Logistics Agency has procured more than 36 million gallons of ethanol-and-petroleum blends for the military. The Navy in September ordered an additional 150,000 gallons of algae-based fuel from San Francisco company Solazyme. The new agreement is seven times the size of the initial 20,000-gallon contract awarded last year. The Navy is paying big bucks for these fuels.
The service consumes an average of 1.2 billion gallons of petroleum each year at a cost of $3 billion about $2.50 per gallon. The service paid Solazyme $8.5 million to provide just 20,000 gallons of algae-based fuel
$425 per gallon.
At that rate, it would cost the Navy some $142.8 billion for the 8 million barrels of biofuel needed to meet its 2020 goal.
Camelina-based fuel is a bit cheaper but still more expensive than petroleum. In September 2009 the DLAs defense energy support center paid Montanas Sustainable Oils $2.7 million for 40,000 gallons of camelina-based fuel. That comes to about $67.50 per gallon.
No better way to find out if these biofuels are going to work, than trying it out in real-time.
I cannot fault the DOD for prudently looking for secure fuel sources. However, they fought a war against a German army that was powered in part by diesel made by converting coal to liquid fuels (CTL). This technology has been refined to the point that its break-even is less than $100/bbl equivalent. While fuels made from algae and alternatives are quaint, the difference in maturity of the process and the cost is night and day different from that based on proven CTL technologies.
Based on the other excursions this administration has made into “green energy”, this stinks of buying off the greens, and this just plain stinks when the waste is paid for by borrowing money from China.
Green Power?
overpriced, overhyped,oversubsidized?
what’s not to love?
First Obama cuts the budget of the military, then the military pisses away that budgeted money buying fuel that costs ten times what regular fuel costs.
Does this make any sense at all to anyone?
This country is turning into a looney bin.
It is time to start lopping off heads.
We are lucky Obama (the smartest president EVER!) didn’t think of saving Solyndra by demanding the military put Solyndra solar panels on the F-22 and the newest Virginia-class attack submarines.
As usual with the Chicago mob, follow the money.
I guess the military has to do whatever Obama orders, even if it kills them just as we all have to do whatever he orders in health care even if it kills us. This is what it is like to have an inbred royal in power.
As a green alternative, this experiment is a disaster.
As a military retiree, I am, however, interested that our defense machine can still operate if for some reason our access to petroleum became limited.
I’m not real sure what doomsday scenario would call for it, but if in that scenario we’re down to seeds and garbage to run our ships, then I’m glad we’ve figured out how to make our ships run on seeds and garbage.
Count me in the minority here — but I think the Navy is right. This isn’t about saving money or saving the whales, this is about national security. A huge percentage of the world’s oil comes from the Arabs, Russia and Venezuela. Ensuring that the Navy’s operations aren’t jeopardized by an embargo makes sense.