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Administration Wastes Money On Mandated Biofuel For Navy
The Obama administration’s deal to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel for Navy jets comes at a cost of up to nine times higher than regular fuel, a spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, coming at a time when the U.S. military is already facing deep budget cuts.

Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has supported biofuel projects in the past, but has problems with a program the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of the Navy announced earlier this month – one that would pay $26 per gallon for a special biofuel for Navy jets; $16 per gallon when mixed with regular jet fuel.

“Sen. Inhofe’s concern in this particular case as it deals with the Department of Defense is that the alternative is cost prohibitive,” Inhofe spokesman Jared Young said.

“Of late, our nation’s military has had to endure $500 billion in budget cuts, and if the sequestration happens as a result of the super committee’s failure to reach a deal, it would mean an additional $500 billion in cuts to our nation’s military.”

The Navy entered the contract with Louisiana-based Dynamic Fuels for $12 million for aviation fuel. Dynamic Fuels is a partnership of three firms, Solazyme, Syntroleum and Tyson Foods.

Solazyme previously received $21.7 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus, to build a “biorefinery.” T.J. Glauthier is listed on the Solazyme website as a strategic advisor for the company. Glauthier served on President Obama’s White House transition team, where he focused on energy issues for the recovery act, according to the Solazyme website.

“The Department of Defense should not purchase alternative fuels that are priced 9 time higher than conventional fuels --$26.75 per gallon to approximately $2.85 per gallon -- because those extra costs will further eat away at other necessary budget items such as operations, maintenance, training, and modernization,” Young continued in a written statement. “In addition, the alternative fuel is less available on the front lines, making its use more restrictive.”

On Dec. 5, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that the Defense Logistics Agency had signed contracts to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuel – the largest purchase of biofuel by the federal government in history.

Mixing the biofuel with conventional fuel will help keep the price to less than what it could be, say $16 per gallon, but that’s still expensive, said Dan Simmons of the Institute for Energy Research.

“This is one of the underreported aspects. It isn’t just $16 per gallon,” Simmons said. “It was actually $26 a gallon for the biofuel, but they mixed it with more moderately priced fuel. If you do the math that comes out to $1,000 a barrel for that fuel, which is just incredibly expensive.”

In August, the administration announced their intentions to spend $510 million during the next three years to buy advanced drop-in biofuel for military transportation. In lieu of congressional authorization to spend that much, the administration used existing authority for this initiative without congressional authorization. The purchase is part of the Obama administration’s “We Can’t Wait,” initiative, which involves bypassing Congress when possible.
Syntroleum was created by an oilman, but taken over by SLH Corporation, who forced the oilman out, and became deeply involved with Enron. Tyson Foods at one point had leaked an executive memo detailing a price list of bribes to be offered at every level of the Arkansas State government. So the entire deal is full of Democrat insiders, scoundrels and schemers.
Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-12-24
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=335874