White House holds 'pep talk' on biofuels - The Hill's E2-WireLTG Seip, may I respectfully suggest we would not have that issue if we were drilling off the coast of the US (like China is), building the Keystone Pipeline to get oil from more reliable sources, etc. All these acts would increase the supply of energy which then drives down the cost.
Sensing increasing resistance to a Navy biofuels testing program, the White House on Wednesday convened biofuels proponents for a strategy session about the energy source.
Ex-military, agriculture, industry and government officials all met in the Roosevelt Room for the talk, retired U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Cheney said Thursday at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by The Truman Project.
Though the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, has said the Armed Forces need biofuels for energy security, lawmakers have made it more difficult for the DOD to procure biofuels.
“When they cut it out of the NDAA (defense authorization bill), that caught people’s attention,” Cheney said of biofuels in an interview with The Hill after the event. “It was kind of like saying, ‘Well, we don’t care about this anymore.’ And we do.”
The meeting, which Cheney called a "pep talk," reflects a growing malaise regarding biofuels, which have attracted criticism from fiscal hawks. Reports of a $26-per-gallon biofuel and petroleum mix being tested by the Navy’s “Great Green Fleet” aircraft carrier strike group through a $12 million Navy biofuels program riled lawmakers, pushing the Senate Armed Services Committee to pass amendments from Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and John McCain (Ariz.) that limit the Defense Department’s ability to buy biofuels.
Michael Breen, vice president of The Truman Project, said lawmakers ignored that the $26-per-gallon fuel purchase was only meant for testing. The price would have been lower if it were an operational buy, he said. That $26-per-gallon price tag was also for the biofuel alone. Once blended with traditional petroleum, that figure comes down to $15 per gallon.
The defense establishment sees biofuels through a security lens. More options, especially domestically produced ones, mean less dependence both tactically and strategically on foreign nations, they said. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norman Seip commented Thursday that unbudgeted fuel costs diverted $2 billion last year from military operations...
..The administration has stood behind biofuels on national security grounds. It combined with the Energy, Defense and Agriculture departments to propose a $510 million investment in biofuels with a private sector match through the Defense Production Act, which couches the need for biofuels on a national security logic.
The White House sent Heather Zichal, the administration’s deputy assistant for energy and climate change, to the Energy Department’s annual biomass conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C., with a message that Congress “needs to get beyond short-sightism” on biofuels. She touted Panetta’s views on biofuels during that speech.
The administration also announced $62 million in new biofuels funding earlier this month.
Lawmakers are treating the Navy biofuels testing program as a “political football” for uncertain reasons, a White House official told The Hill on Friday.
Some lawmakers, mostly Republicans, have pushed against biofuels. They say cheaper domestic fuel options that do not require government support, such as natural gas, can supply a good portion of U.S. energy needs. That could spin off into transportation fuel, they say.
I looked at her bio and this 36 year old woman is nothing but a political hack. She graduated college, started in Democratic politics and is now a high Obama regime official. Sounds about right for the career path but she is clueless about energy policy. Now this I found interesting.
Citigroup predicts U.S. oil self-sufficiency by 2020 as a result of those new natural gas supplies, and once Canadian imports are factored in, Ed Morse, managing director and global head of commodities research at Citigroup, said Thursday at a D.C. event hosted by the New America Foundation.
Here is someone who actually knows energy...forgive me Heather, but you are clueless. I remember when Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Congress established the Department of Energy with one purpose: To get America off of foreign oil. Our reliance on foreign sources has doubled while we have cut off our domestic sources. We are funding the Iranian nuclear program buy keeping oil prices high with the added benefit of harming our economy in the process.
Got some more stuff in the article and but I go back to the cost of fuel posted in the article. For this boondoggle the Navy is paying 26 dollars a gallon for bio fuel. It goes down to 15 dollars a gallon in a blend with diesel. The cost of a gallon of maritime fuel diesel is currently less than 4 dollars a gallon.
Is it January 20, 2013 yet?
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