Obama pushes for development of biofuel to power military, commercial aircraft

US President Barack Obama directed the Energy and Agriculture Depts. and the US Navy "to work with the private sector to create advanced biofuels that can power not just fighter jets but trucks and commercial airliners."

Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, Obama outlined an energy policy that includes the goal of lowering the number of barrels of oil imported by the US daily by one-third from 11 million in 2008. He said that "a substitute for oil that holds tremendous promise is renewable biofuels—not just ethanol, but biofuels made from things like switchgrass, wood chips and biomass."

He noted that the US Air Force recently "used an advanced biofuel blend to fly an F-22 Raptor faster than the speed of sound. In fact, the Air Force is aiming to get half of its domestic jet fuel from alternative sources by 2016." He added, "Over the next two years, we'll help entrepreneurs break ground on four next-generation biorefineries—each with a capacity of more than 20 million gallons per year. And going forward, we should look for ways to reform biofuels incentives to make sure they meet today's challenges and save taxpayers money."

US Air Transport Assn. President and CEO Nicholas Calio said, "We applaud President Obama's leadership in furthering America's energy security by directing accelerated production of commercially viable biofuels for use in aircraft … We look forward to stepping up our work with the USDA, DOE and the nation's military in furthering advanced biofuels development and deployment."