Navy takes biofuels campaign into uncharted waters.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: BIOFUELS

Energy is ammunition.

These three words are creeping back into the speech of commanders today. It is a concept that has guided the armed forces before.

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Military leaders more than 60 years ago could see the potential operational capability dripping from a slice of bacon. Colorful ads during World War II urged homemakers to return grease to the local butcher so the government could use it to make bombs.

The Pentagon of today has launched another campaign to look for homegrown solutions to its energy crisis. This crusade could have lasting impacts as the military tries to jumpstart an alternative fuels industry that needs a poster child.

The Navy is at the forefront of the military's efforts to "go green." The service recently used biofuels to fly a fighter jet and began referring to one of its boats as a "lean, green, fighting machine" after it zipped across the waves on algae-based fuel during a showcase off the Virginia coast.

By trying to wean itself off oil, the Navy is looking to send signals into the alternative fuels market. It also is seeking to make a case that green energy saves lives. Even though the services account for just a tiny fraction of the country's petroleum use, that little bit has deadly consequences.

One of the most quoted statistics in the military world today is that one soldier or marine is killed or wounded for every 25 fuel convoys undertaken by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

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"That is simply too high a human price to pay for imported energy," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said. The reasons for investing in alternative fuels have become crystal clear, he said, "and the strategic and tactical implications of failing to do these things have become even more stark."

Mabus signed memorandums of understanding last year with the Department of Agriculture and the Small Business Administration to encourage the development of biofuels. The Navy wants to demonstrate a "green" carrier strike group by 2012 and deploy it by 2016. By 2020, it wants half of its fuels to come from sources other than petroleum. These goals depend on the availability of biofuels.

Nobody has said it will be easy.

The country as a whole has similar ambitions that, too, will require an infant biofuels industry to grow up fast. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates that by 2020 the U.S. fuel supply include 36 billion gallons of biofuel. The country is quickly nearing 15 billion gallons, but it still lacks the infrastructure needed to produce enough of the environmentally...