U.S. Military Launches Alternative-Fuel Push - Dependence on Oil Seen as Too Risky;

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121134017363909773.html

U.S. Military Launches Alternative-Fuel Push

Dependence on Oil Seen as Too Risky;
B-1 Takes Test Flight

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
May 21, 2008; Page A1

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. -- With fuel prices soaring, the U.S. military, the country's largest single consumer of oil, is turning into an alternative-fuels pioneer.

In March, Air Force Capt. Rick Fournier flew a B-1 stealth bomber code-named Dark 33 across this sprawling proving ground, to confirm for the first time that a plane could break the sound barrier using synthetic jet fuel. A similar formula -- a blend of half-synthetic and half-conventional petroleum -- has been used in some South African commercial airliners for years, but never in a jet going so fast.

...

With oil's multiyear ascent showing no signs of stopping -- crude futures set another record Tuesday, closing at $129.07 a barrel in New York trading -- energy security has emerged as a major concern for the Pentagon.

The U.S. military consumes 340,000 barrels of oil a day, or 1.5% of all of the oil used in the country. The Defense Department's overall energy bill was $13.6 billion in 2006, the latest figure available -- almost 25% higher than the year before. The Air Force's bill for jet fuel alone has tripled in the past four years. When the White House submitted its latest budget request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it tacked on a $2 billion surcharge for rising fuel costs.

...

[global1]

1. Maybe The Cost Of Oil Will Go So High We Won't Be Able To Afford More Wars.....nt..

[Hydra]

2. Don't worry, we'll borrow more at that point

"War is peace"

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. If only...

I'm afraid actually, that the reverse may be true. (i.e. the rising cost of Oil will lead to more wars.)

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/speeches/su80jec.phtml

...

Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.

...

[The2ndWheel]

4. So not much happened prior to about 1860?

As long as there is diversity, there will be conflict.

[Bob Dobbs]

5. With the trillions of dollars we have invested in "intelligence'

you would think the big brains in the military-information-security complex would have figured this out a few decades ago and started to develop alternatives so that we would have some solutions before we were teetering on the edge of the socio-economic cliff we find ourselves at now.

The scumbags running the world were so obsessed with stealing all the money and power they couldn't be bothered with any practical planning.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Well... actually... they did

http://fossil.energy.gov/aboutus/history/syntheticfuels_history.html

[Bob Dobbs]

7. This makes it the worst possible scenario.

We knew there would be a problem 60 years ago, did the research, began developing solutions, and allowed in our willful ignorance our future to be hijacked by the shadow government of power elite petro-billionaires.

Guillotines are too good for the elites. Enhanced interrogation techniques with extreme prejudice this time around.

Where is our Bastille? I'm ready to storm it.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. As with other "alternatives"

The key factor here is cost. Under a wartime stance, when cost is no object, the research was pursued.

The process was well understood. However, the cost was prohibitive. Now that oil prices have gotten so high though...

Here's the part I like BTW:
http://fossil.energy.gov/aboutus/history/syntheticfuels_history.html

...

"...the construction and operation of demonstration plants to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal, oil shales, agricultural and forestry products, and other substances, in order to aid the prosecution of the war, to conserve and increase the oil resources of the Nation, and for other purposes."

...

[bhikkhu]

10. Jimmy Carter was the president at one turning point

Perhaps many are too young to remember...but he gave speeches about how we needed to lower our expectations, conserve, make do with less, fund alternative energies. He had a solar water heater installed on the WH roof, and established a cabinet-level Secretary of Energy...and so on. He had us on a sound track, 30 years ago when I was a teenager and wrapped up in the beauty of the science of it.

Reagan was elected and everything went out the window. No more Secretary of Energy, solar heater taken down and scrapped, everything turned to military power and influence over oil producing regions, and economic expansion at the cost of everything else. Needless to say, he did as a President what he said he would do as a candidate, and he was voted in fair and square. We are reaping now what was sown.

[hatrack]

8. Definitely too risky for the DOD - as for the rest of us, hey, no problem!!!

Right?
:eyes:

[Zachstar]

11. The problem is the military is more into Coal2Oil and Gas2Oil than anything else.

For good reason.

When the B-52s need to fly they can't wait for a giant field of corn to mature.