How Biofuel Demand Is Lowering The Standards Of Living Around The World

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As Biofuel Demand Grows, So Do Guatemala’s Hunger Pangs -- New York Times

GUATEMALA CITY — In the tiny tortillerias of this city, people complain ceaselessly about the high price of corn. Just three years ago, one quetzal — about 15 cents — bought eight tortillas; today it buys only four. And eggs have tripled in price because chickens eat corn feed.

Meanwhile, in rural areas, subsistence farmers struggle to find a place to sow their seeds. On a recent morning, José Antonio Alvarado was harvesting his corn crop on the narrow median of Highway 2 as trucks zoomed by.

“We’re farming here because there is no other land, and I have to feed my family,” said Mr. Alvarado, pointing to his sons Alejandro and José, who are 4 and 6 but appear to be much younger, a sign of chronic malnutrition.

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My Comment: I am not surprised by this news (I have been posting on what has been the impact of biofuel growth on world food stocks in this blog for years) .... what I am surprised about is that it is the New York Times that is reporting this story. Bottom line .... some green technologies have consequences, and in this case it is hunger and poverty for millions followed by the unrest and instability that it brings..

U.S. Navy's Biofuel Plans Get The Support Of The U.S. Senate

Senate Votes To Save The Navy’s ‘Great Green Fleet’ -- Danger Room

The Senate on Wednesday threw a life raft to the Navy’s beleaguered plan to power its ships and jets with biofuel.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus trumpeted the program as key to service’s long-term stability, pledging $170 million to kickstart the wobbly biofuel industry, promising to get half the Navy’s fuel from alternative sources by 2020, and making plans to dispatch an eco-friendly “Great Green Fleet” in 2016.

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More News On the U.S. Senate Approving The Pentagon's Plans For Bio-fuels

Senate OK’s military spending on biofuel refineries -- Stars and Stripes
Senate gives green light to Pentagon green energy -- Bloomberg Businessweek/AP
Navy's Biofuel Plan Gets Senate Support -- Wall Street Journal
Senate strikes restriction on military biofuel development -- Reuters
US Senate backs military, Obama on green fuels -- TG Daily
Senate Again Backs Pentagon's Green-Energy Plans -- Wall Street Journal
With Senate’s Support, Advanced Biofuel Industry Ready for Takeoff -- Energy Collective
Democrats put green energy back into military budget bill -- Human Events

A 'Green Fleet' Will Be An Expensive Fleet To Maintain

Fleet replenishment oiler Henry J. Kaiser, left, delivers a 50-50 blend of advanced biofuels and traditional petroleum-based fuel to the guided-missile cruiser Princeton during the Great Green Fleet demonstration portion of Rim of the Pacific 2012 exercise. Photo: MC3 Ryan Mayes / U.S. Navy

Navy Draws Fire As It Touts 'Green Fleet' -- Houston Chronicle

As the Navy ran exercises with biofuel-powered planes and vessels near Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday, top Obama administration officials hit back against earlier criticism that the endeavor was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the "Great Green Fleet" test exercises for the first time proved that aircraft carriers, FA-18 jets and other equipment can run on advanced biofuels without any modifications - a major milestone in his quest to find an alternative to fuels derived from foreign oil.

"It was worthwhile to show that biofuels can compete and can be used in every single thing that we do in the Navy," Mabus said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.

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My Comment: $27 for a gallon of fuel .... just to prove that biofuels can be used even though regular fuel is plentiful and readily available at a fraction of that cost. Ignoring the simple fact that converting food products to biofuels will exacerbate the food crisis .... shale oil and oil from tar sands costs less .... and there are hundreds of billions of barrels of that type of oil available in both Canada and the U.S..

Is Having A 'Green Fleet' Practical In Today's Tight Budgets?

Photo from Innovation Files

Insight: "Green Fleet" Sails, Meets Stiff Headwinds In Congress -- Reuters

(Reuters) - A U.S. Navy oiler slipped away from a fuel depot on the Puget Sound in Washington state one recent day, headed toward the central Pacific and into the storm over the Pentagon's controversial green fuels initiative.

In its tanks, 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.

Conventionally powered ships and aircraft in the strike group will burn the blend in an operational setting for the first time this month during the 22-nation Rim of the Pacific exercise, the largest annual international maritime warfare maneuvers. The six-week exercise began on Friday.

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Update: White House pushes biofuels on Navy over lawmaker objections -- The Hill

My Comment: The paragraph that caught my attention was the following ....

.... Some Republican lawmakers have seized on the fuel's $26-a-gallon price, compared to $3.60 for conventional fuel. They paint the program as a waste of precious funds at a time when the U.S. government's budget remains severely strained, the Pentagon is facing cuts and energy companies are finding big quantities of oil and gas in the United States.

If oil stocks and supplies were collapsing and we were in a middle of a war .... I can understand on why we should have these green energy programs. But we are not in such a situation, and $26-a-gallon price tag is a bit steep for me.