The US Navy wants to have half of its fleet powered by alternative fuels by 2020 (mostly Ethanol) – green.autoblog.com! Considering how much fuel the Navy as well as the whole Defense Department uses, that could be a real boon to the industry. We also wouldn’t be sending as much money overseas by purchasing diminishing oil resources abroad. Also the Navy and the broader military might not have to fight as hard to secure oil resources in places like Iraq. Wouldn’t that be nice?
That being said, we must make sure that these alternative fuels are sustainable, economically viable and readily produced. For example, we cannot rely on corn based ethanol because that interferes with the food supply. Cellulosic ethanol is an option and even algal ethanol is a possibility. We eventually have to move away from petroleum anyway and increased demand for alternative liquid fuels from the Navy may kick the industry into action before it is too late. Somebody has got to do it.