Navy buys biofuel for $16 a gallon

Hot Air ^ | December 11,2011 | J.E. DYER

[Hojczyk]

Teaming up with the Department of Agriculture (which has a cheery Rotary Club ring to it), the Navy has purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for about $16 a gallon, or about 4 times the price of its standard marine fuel, JP-5, which has been going for under $4 a gallon.

You won’t be surprised to learn that a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a “strategic advisor” at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.

The Navy sale isn’t Solazyme’s first trip to the public trough, of course. The company got a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package.

Solazyme’s partner in the biofuel sale is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana company owned jointly by Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum. Tyson and Syntroleum are distinguished by having profitable lines of business that do not rely on government grants to unprofitable “green” projects. This does not make their biofuel product price-competitive with fossil fuels, however. (They were induced to develop biofuel manufacturing processes by a combination of subsidies and tax breaks.)

The Dynamic Fuels plant was opened for business in Geismar, LA in 2010, becoming by far the largest biofuels plant in North America – and reportedly, in combination with a plant in Finland, a producer of 94% of the world’s biofuels. This is great boosterism stuff, but the biofuels produced by Dynamic Fuels are still considerably more expensive than the fossil-fuel alternative. Dynamic Fuels has begun supplying aviation biofuel to KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, but of course, the use of more-expensive biofuels by commercial carriers has to be subsidized by governments.

[null and void]

$16/gallon is right about where Obama wants our gas prices to be.

Yep.

I've been putting this sticker on gas pumps:

"Somehow we have to figure
out how to boost the price of
gasoline to the [$8-$10/gal]
levels in Europe." - Barrack Obama's
Energy Secretary Steve Chu. Had enough yet???

I've sized mine to fit twelve to a sheet of bumper sticker stock...

[Napoleon Solo]

Is there any Congressional oversite left in the USA? Where are the muckrakers or has Obo put a target on anything good for America?

[Paladin2]

The US military should be drillin’, baby, drillin’ in Afghanistan.

[ChildOfThe60s]

bump

[RetiredTexasVet]

Solazyme’s partner in the biofuel sale is Dynamic Fuels. What a couple of dummies. Didn’t they realize that they were dealing with the Food Stamp President’s corrupt administration? Hell, if the Justice department can run guns, deal in sex trafficking, launder money, etc., the Dept. of Agriculture could have got these two dummies at least $40 a gallon with $10 kickbacked to Agriculture and $10 donated to the Food Stamp President’s re-election campaign. That would have left them a cool $20 per gallon.

[Crichton]

R. James Woolsey previously was the Director of Central Intelligence and the Under-Secretary of the Navy, and pioneer in the clean energy sector; TJ Glauthier [you know] & Donald Kennedy, former head of the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] all on Solazyme's Strategic Advisory Board

But hey, Newt, Inc. hires out as a government expert/ paid adviser..and he's described across the media as on the take.

Yup, they're all crooks.

[bushpilot1]

Green Energy is the Trojan Horse for corruption

[denydenydeny]

You won’t be surprised to learn that a member of Obama’s presidential transition team, T. J. Glauthier, is a “strategic advisor” at Solazyme, the California company that is selling a portion of the biofuel to the Navy. Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill.

Gangsters.

[lowbridge]

Bump

[ckilmer]

bad stuff except when you consider that fuel delivered to afghanistan costs about $400@gallon.

It will be too late for the afghan war but at some time in the future it will be cheaper for the military to grow their own fuel when they have a base—then to have it delivered.

[ckilmer]

bad stuff except when you consider that fuel delivered to afghanistan costs about $400@gallon.

It will be too late for the afghan war but at some time in the future it will be cheaper for the military to grow their own fuel when they have a base—then to have it delivered.

[KoRn]

I wonder who got the big kick back on this one.....

[Enchante]

Yes I thought of the “Teapot Dome” scandal in the Harding admin. immediately.

This corruption needs to bring down this Obamanation.

[CT]

Real Biofuels company, with waste as a feedstock: RTK. Rentech.

[Vendome]

if it’s made from pigs....then okay, let em fly, erh, fry...

sigh...

[paterfamilias]

The corruption never ends.

When you drive off the grounds of the US Naval Academy, you pass a fleet of electric vehicles parked in a lot by Gate 8. This is part of the Federal Government, through the DOD, subsidizing these green vehicles that nobody else wants.

Every year for the last 5 years or so, training cruises at the Academy have been curtailed because of the high cost of fuel for their Yard Patrol boats.

[stevie_d_64]

Didn’t a story on algae based fuel being used in one of the last Spruance class DD’s just come thru FR??? Bout a month ago???

That looked to be very promising...

Those LM2500’s can be a bit twitchy at times...

But they seemed to tolerate this stuff...