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

By Aaron Karp | March 31, 2011

US President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he has directed the Departments of Energy and Agriculture and the 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 last week "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." Obama 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."

Separately. Airbus, Iberia and the Government of Spain announced a biofuel initiative (see item below).

Photo: US President Barack Obama

Discuss this news 8

30 Mar21:28

Food costs are going through

By Anonymous

Food costs are going through the roof and this champion of the poor wants it turned into aircraft fuel. Maybe we can have food riots in this country like they had in Tunisia and Egypt.

31 Mar00:59

YES!!! Air New Zealand uses

By Anonymous

YES!!! Air New Zealand uses this form finds it performing way beyond expectations. How many heads of cattle in Nebraska can we recycle their foods??? AMAZING.

31 Mar05:21

It is perfectly possible to

By Chas

It is perfectly possible to create biofuels from sources which don't interfere with food production. Mind you, I'm not sure that switchgrass falls into this category. But algae certainly does. I hope the US invests in algae biofuels - it would give a serious boost to getting fully sustainable biofuels into air transport.

31 Mar08:49

But the aim is not to get

By Richard

But the aim is not to get this from food crops, but from other plants.
Some of the plants grow where you cannot farm food crops anyway.

31 Mar10:06

Algae fuel is an alternative

By Anonymous

Algae fuel is an alternative to fossil fuel. We are growing algae to turn it into biofuel. Nobody is eating algae.

31 Mar16:05

I didn't realize you could

By Anonymous

I didn't realize you could eat switchgrass, woodchips, and biomass!

03 Apr20:07

When you go to the

By John White

When you go to the supermarket you will see the true cost of corn biofuels. Since ethanol has doubled the price of corm and other grains, food prices are and will continue to climb. But, since these grains are the primary feed of chickens and cattle meat prices will continue to soar. Any savings from biofuels are already negated.

07 Jun02:05

Biofuels are the future. We

By Digos

Biofuels are the future. We need to to move away from dependence on fossil fuels and those Arab oil-producing countries that keep pushing oil prices sky high and food prices following the rocketing fossil fuel prices. Biofuel energy sources are renewable. Stop complaining!