OPINION: Biofuels At Sea

From The Heritage Foundation, I’m Ernest Istook.

The Obama Administration wants our Navy to have a Great Green Fleet by 2016—powered totally by alternative energy.

They want to fly Navy jets with biofuel, made from algae, fat, and grease. The Navy just awarded a biofuel contract for half a million gallons. They’re paying $15 a gallon—about four times the cost of regular jet fuel. Sure, $100 a barrel oil is expensive, but the biofuel runs $630 a barrel.

In addition to charging sky-high prices, some biofuel makers also get taxpayer money from green energy grants and subsidies.

The Navy claims we need expensive alternatives because we’re running out of oil. They better check again. The latest figures show America has about 1.4-trillion barrels of recoverable oil—that’s about a 200-year supply. The problem is: our government won’t let us drill for much of it.

From The Heritage Foundation, I’m Ernest Istook.

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