The US military is turning to biofuels for the future searching for ways to limit dependence on foreign oil. The Pentagon's hunt for an alternative to petroleum has turned a lowly weed and animal fat into something indistinguishable from jet fuel, and now the military is trying to kick-start a new biofuel industry.
"To flip the line from Field of Dreams, if the Navy comes, they will build it," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a recent speech.
The Air Force and the Navy have been busy testing their aircraft on biofuels. Together with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture, the Navy has launched a project to invest up to half a billion dollars in biofuel refineries.
Mabus says he is committed to getting 50% of the Navy's fuel for aircraft and surface ships from renewable sources by 2020 because dependence on foreign oil makes the American. military vulnerable.
"We buy too much fossil fuels from potentially or actually volatile places on earth," Mabus says.
There are lots of negative consequences of relying on foreign oil. For instance, when conflicts abroad spook the petroleum market, the military faces massive increases in fuel costs.
The Air Force hopes to get half of the fuel it uses for domestic flights from alternative sources by 2016. But the small batches of biofuel made so far cost about 10 times the price of traditional fuel. Braun says that's a hurdle for Pentagon officials.
"They're committed as long as they can get these fuels at cost-competitive pricing. So that means that industry is going to have to step up their production and start creating much larger quantities of fuel," he says.
Producers say that has created a classic chicken and egg problem.
"To build a refinery at scale is hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. If you don't have known customers you will not ever build that facility," says Tom Todaro, CEO of Altair, a company turning camelina into jet fuel.
Todaro says larger plants will produce cheaper fuel. "We've demonstrated this works. We're going to demonstrate very, very quickly that it's surprisingly affordable," Todaro adds.
The military isn't the only potential big customer. Airlines want jet biofuel too, but they're not in the best financial shape to back a new industry.
"We can't get there by ourselves," Sharon Pinkerton, a vice president of the Air Transport Association, told a recent Senate hearing.
Industry officials hope the federal government's effort will help the nascent industry get off the ground. In addition to the program to help fund new refineries, the Agriculture Department has awarded incentives to lure farmers to start growing camelina.