Biofuel.

This is coolbert:

 Again from the Tribune today:

 "'Green Fleet' ships sail amid cost debate" 

 "WASHINGTON - - A Navy oiler slipped away from a fuel depot on the Puget Sound in Washington state recently headed toward the central Pacific and into the storm over the Pentagon's controversial green fuels initiative."

 "the USNS Henry J. Kaiser carried nearly 900,000 gallons of biofuel blended with petroleum to power the cruisers, destroyers and fighter jets of what the Navy has taken to calling the 'Great Green Fleet,' the first carrier strike group to be powered largely by alternative fuels."

 An American aircraft carrier strike group while on one six month deployment will normally use about 1 million gallons of AVGAS [aviation gasoline] A PORTION OF WHICH WILL BE MERELY DUMPED AT SEA!!

 "The Pentagon hopes it can prove the Navy looks as impressive burning fuel squeezed from seeds, algae and chicken fat as it does using petroleum"

 Please note THIS IS NOT PURELY BIOFUEL BUT A MIX OF BIO9FUEL AND NORMAL PETROLEUM PRODUCT!! WHAT PERCENTAGE IS BIOFUEL IS NOT MENTIONED!!

 That cost however for the biofuel [mix?] just staggering!

 "Some Republican law-makers have seized n the fuel's nearly $27-a-gallon price, compared to roughly $3.60 for conventional fuel."

 This project more than anything else an attempt to demonstrate the feasibility of allowing the American military to become totally self-sufficient with regard to fuel!! That dire circumstance of a general war and the U.S. military cut-off from an abundance of foreign supply by some sort of unforeseen conflagration now avoided!!

Cost also much reduced when such biofuel manufactured on an industrial and massive scale.

 And according to Senator John Mc Cain:

 "I don't believe it's the job of the Navy to be involved in building - - new technologies,"

 NO! Senator John is wrong!

That man who might have been President is obviously not aware of that program prior to the Second World War [WW2], the U.S. Navy funding research into diesel engines of prodigious size. Research as done by the railroads, an engine sought that could power locomotives [rather than coal-fired steam engines] OR submarines.

Research most fruitful, American subs during WW2 indeed propelled into battle by diesel engines having a dual purpose, civilian railroads and military warships!!

 coolbert.