The US government has been blowing the trumpet for some time about its efforts to make the US military "green" and now there efforts have borne fruit. The Navy has bought 450,000 gallons of biofuel for the low, low price of only $16.00 per gallon–over four times the price of petrol. And the whole thing stinks of cronyism.
In other words, the "green" movement in a nutshell.
It's worse than that. According to the CBO, the $16/gal price is after you factor in the biofuel being mixed in a 1:2 ratio with standard JP-5 turbine fuel. (It can't be used "neat" because it gums the injectors.)
ReplyDeleteBefore mixing, the price works out to about $26/gallon.
Even for a pilot project, which is what this supposedly is, that's pretty high for anything you're not burning in a liquid-fuel rocket.
That said, 450k gallons is about one-fifth of a full load for a San Jacinto class fleet oiler (2.5 million gallons). So I tend to believe that this is an actual pilot-program buy.
It also proves that "biofuel" is a bad investment from any angle, and definitely for fleet use. Maybe we'll get lucky, and they'll figure out that shale oil is a better bet.
Nahhh.
cheers
eon