Remember that $26.75-per-gallon “green” biofuel that the Navy was talking about using a few months ago? Well, don’t worry – the Navy got a price break on the stuff. It won’t cost that much.
It’s now going for “only” $26-per-gallon. And that’s good, because the Navy just announced it will soon use a bunch of it.
Per published accounts, this month the Navy will send 5 ships to participate in a multinational exercise off the coast of Hawaii. They will be fueled, at least in part, by the stuff. Ain’t progress wonderful?
By comparison, standard petroleum fuels of the same type are going for about $3.60 a gallon. The new fuel therefore “only” costs about 722% as much as the fuel it replaces. (No, I didn’t miss a decimal point there – it actually does cost more than 7 times as much as standard ship fuel.)
But I guess cost doesn’t matter that much when you’re spending someone else’s money. And just think – you’re also helping to save the planet! Even though the new “green” fuel produces just as much in terms of greenhouse gases as the fuel it replaces – plus whatever was necessary to generate the energy used to produce the stuff from “seeds, algae, and chicken fat”.
No, I’m not making this sh*t up.
When do we go back to ships with sails? It doesn’t get much greener, (or brown as the case might be) than that.
REPOST:
MCPO NYC USN(Ret.) Says:
March 9th, 2012 at 11:51 am
OK now I am really pissed. The US Navy used to steam its ships buy burning coal in the boilers (generation phase of steam cycle). Extracting and or coverting the chemical energy of coal and imparting it in a heat transfer from the fire box to the water tubes of a boiler was no easy task. No big deal … we Stokers, Boiler Tenders and Technicians and the like enjoyed our work and was of the toughest jobs in the Navy. The US Navy then was the first to CONVERT to oil using marine Bunker C or # 6 oil. This fuel oil required preheating and meticulous testing, water and impurity separation amoung other things. But the conversion had a strategic purpose that transformed our Navy and permitted us virtually in months to become the greatest Navy that ever roamed the seas. The conversion increased time at sea, imporoved fuel efficiency, gave the Navy a longer reach, and also provided for the next step in developing a long range range plan for US Navy domination and superiourity at sea. While the Navy planned its conversion from coal to Bumber C, it was also developing a way to refuel ships underway. Yes, underway refuling was developing, honed, and master by the US Navy. No Navy does it better. In fact we do it so well, we can refuel from an aircraft carrier at the foward station, while replenishing food and ammo at the aft station, while the aircraft carrier is conducting flight ops at night. I witnessed this in June of 1980 while I was stationed aboard the USS Valdez (FF-1096). The Valdez was portside to the USS John F. Kennedy. I was a 17 year old Boiler Technician Fireman Apprentice (BTFA). By the late 1970?s virtually all Navy ships were CONVERTED to buring Diseal Fuel Marine (DFM) or # 2 fuel. DFM did not need preheating and it was cleaner.
Now the issue of spending $25.00 per gallon on a fuel that is not readily available at all strategic refueling ports of call worldwide. This is another Big Government program. I would like to know who (company name) is producing this wonder oil and what type of subsity are they recieving from BIG GOVERNMENT. Further, I would like to know how the US Navy will pull up the pier in Ethiopia, Korea, Italy, or England and ask for the “Greener $25.00 Fuel”. It won’t be there. The fuel is DFM # 2 with a Bottom Sediment and Water (BSW) of less than .1 … PERIOD.
BTW … when the US Navy converted from coal to Bunker C, we had a fleet of refueling ships and … Yes … most of the oil came from … YES kids … you guessed correctly … THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Here is one of the US Navy memos that started this BIO BULLSHIT FUEL INITIATIVE: http://www.navsea.navy.mil/teamships/Sailing_Directions/pdfs/TeamShips_Sailing_Direction-3.pdf
If you want to see some very cool YouTube action search for underway refueling … it is and always will be one of the most amazing at sea operations EVER!
Signed,
Former Bioiler Technician 1980 – 1996
Qualified Fuel and Water KIng
Qualified Engineering Officer of The Watch
Old School –> Old Navy
Retired as MMCM in NOV 2011.
Amen Master Chief. And people thought nukes were costly.
This while the current administration is gutting defense spending to where we’re going to be fucked nine ways from Sunday if we ever get into another shooting war. I wish I could make this shit up.
Master Chief, I cut film on ship-to-ship ropeline personnel transfers in heavy seas when I was at NAVPHOTOCEN. Those were scary enough. You guys have nerves of steel.
I forgot to ask my question: Biodiesel at the pumps costs maybe $3.549 to $3.649 for truck drivers. Comes from peanuts, soybeans and corn. What’s the reason the Navy can’t use that?
The same reason bolts cost $8.50 and shitter seats cost $500. Traceability and contractor markup.
Future conversation between EOOW and Bridge … OOD and Skipper:
“Bridge, EOOW … at this speed we have 8 hours of fuel left”. “ROG that EOOW”, replies the bridge.
OOD approaches Skipper, “ah Captain … Sir … ah … at this speed we have only 8 hours of fuel left”.
“Look here LT Jumpfuckski … there is an oiler at 35,000 yards to my port … make weigh, set the underway refueling detail … have the Oil King report to the bridge”, barked the Skipper.
As the junior OOD wets his skivvies, “but … but … Captain, that US NAVY oiler contains reliable, cheap, Desiel Fuel Marine (DFM), the fuel that made us the greatest Navy ever to sail the seven seas”.
LT Jumpfuckski lets out a long sigh, “Sir, the closest port that has the newer, more liberal, Al Gore approved, eco-friendly, trans-national and post-racial, 9th Circut sactioned, and most fabulicious fuel is in Auckland, New Zealand … over 13,000 miles away”.
“LT Jumpfuckski … contact Norfolk … tell them we will need a ocean going tug”, as the Skipper pondered what could have been if he had joined his father’s tile business after college.
@#5, because of the way this administration does bidness. Remember Solyndra, remember the ban on drilling in the gulf. Somebody’s pockets are getting lined with taxpayer money.
The navy supports the slaughter of innocent chickens? Oh. Nooooooo
I’m personally working on fairy dust fuel. Only 25 bucks a shot. You guys will be the first to know about about it.
Joseph Brown: my sources at the “black” division of Disney R&D say pixie dust has more promise. And it’s Tinkerbell approved as being “green”, too! (smile)
@ Ex-PH2. The reason why the fuel IS so expensiveis: A secret agreement sponsored by the DEPT of Energy, DEPT of Defense, and the White House has promised free college, healthcare, condoms, abortions, legal fees for divorce, bicycles for children, a house for the homeless, dual use technolgy to Iran, China, and North Korea, citizenship for illegal aliens, a baseball glove for every boy, funding for sex change operations, dancing shoes for every girl, freedom to the lovely people of Egypt and Libya, and unlimited beer money for individuals involved in this new industry. With all these … FRENCH BENEFITS … no wonder this fuel costs so much.
Now I am not the smartest man person to visit this site but I do know this. If the fuel is made from seeds, algae, and chicken fat, then it only makes sense that the chicken lobby organize a march on Washington. I call on every abled bodied chicken (not living at Perdue or Tyson factories) from the Palisades of NY and NJ to the Pacific Coast Highway to march on Washington in protest.