Insight: "Green Fleet" Sails, Meets Stiff Headwinds In Congress -- Reuters
(Reuters) - A U.S. Navy oiler slipped away from a fuel depot on the Puget Sound in Washington state one recent day, headed toward the central Pacific and into the storm over the Pentagon's controversial green fuels initiative.
In its tanks, the USNS Henry J. Kaiser carried nearly 900,000 gallons of biofuel blended with petroleum to power the cruisers, destroyers and fighter jets of what the Navy has taken to calling the "Great Green Fleet," the first carrier strike group to be powered largely by alternative fuels.
Conventionally powered ships and aircraft in the strike group will burn the blend in an operational setting for the first time this month during the 22-nation Rim of the Pacific exercise, the largest annual international maritime warfare maneuvers. The six-week exercise began on Friday.
Read more ....
Update: White House pushes biofuels on Navy over lawmaker objections -- The Hill
My Comment: The paragraph that caught my attention was the following ....
.... Some Republican lawmakers have seized on the fuel's $26-a-gallon price, compared to $3.60 for conventional fuel. They paint the program as a waste of precious funds at a time when the U.S. government's budget remains severely strained, the Pentagon is facing cuts and energy companies are finding big quantities of oil and gas in the United States.
If oil stocks and supplies were collapsing and we were in a middle of a war .... I can understand on why we should have these green energy programs. But we are not in such a situation, and $26-a-gallon price tag is a bit steep for me.
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