Amidst Drop in Oil Prices, U.S. Navy Deploys ‘Great Green Fleet’
by David Alexander (Reuters/Yahoo!) The U.S. Navy will formally deploy its so-called “Great Green Fleet” on Wednesday, sending warships to sea on biofuels even though oil prices have dropped 70 percent since congressional Republicans first criticized the high cost of alternative fuels.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told Reuters the deployment is the next step in a fleet-wide effort that has seen the Navy cut its oil consumption by 15 percent since he took charge in 2009 and the Marine Corps curb its use by 60 percent.
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“It gives us an edge tactically, it gives us an edge strategically,” Mabus said. “It keeps … fuel from being used as a weapon against us.”
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Mabus and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be on hand in San Diego on Wednesday for the formal deployment of the Great Green Fleet, when diesel ships in a carrier strike group led by the nuclear-powered USS John C Stennis refuel with a diesel-biofuel blend.
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The fuel being used for the Great Green Fleet deployment is a competitively priced blend of 90 percent diesel and 10 percent biofuel based on a beef tallow feedstock, Navy officials said.
A California firm, AltAir Fuels, is contracted to supply 77 million gallons of the fuel between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016.
The Navy pays $2.05 per gallon, thanks in part to a subsidy of 15 cents per gallon from the Commodity Credit Corp., a government-owned enterprise that supports farm products.
To boost production of alternative fuels, the Navy has awarded $210 million to help three firms build refineries to make biofuels using woody biomass, municipal waste and used cooking grease and oil. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing an additional $161 million in crop supports.
The refineries are expected to begin operations this year, with full production not likely until 2017. To further encourage biofuel production for the Navy, Mabus said he has signed deals to buy from Italy and Chile once firms there begin producing.
The Navy has yet to contract with a company to produce alternative jet fuel, in part because of the growing commercial aviation market. READ MORE and MORE (Biomass Magazine) and MORE (Associated Press/New York Post) and MORE (US News and World Report) and MORE (Biofuels Digest)
