The Air Force Works To Recruit Alternative Fuel Sources
Monday, June 09, 2008PAUL KANGAS: Like commercial airlines, the U.S. Air Force is also facing soaring fuel costs. While efficiency efforts have helped cut consumption, the Air Force still spent nearly $6 billion on fuel last year, triple the amount spent just three years ago. As Stephanie Dhue reports, soaring fuel prices are driving the Air Force to look for alternatives.
STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The Air Force is gearing up to make a market for synthetic fuel made from coal. It has already certified the B-52 bomber to fly with the new fuel and over the next three years, plans to have all 6,000 planes in the fleet fly with a 50/50 blend of synthetic and petroleum-based fuels. Bill Anderson heads the Air Force's fuel program. He says the idea is to develop a domestic industry to supply that fuel.
BILL ANDERSON, ASST. SECRETARY, U.S. AIR FORCE: Rather than the movie the "Field of Dreams," where you build it and they will come, here in essence, we are there, waiting for the industry to be built to service our demand.
DHUE: The Air Force uses about 2.6 billion gallons of jet fuel each year, nearly 10 percent of what's sold in the United States.
ANDERSON: A 10 percent share of the market is a pretty sizable portion and we believe that is enough to initiate a market at a minimum.
DHUE: The Air Force is also working with commercial airlines and engine makers to develop a coal-to-liquids market. Rising crude oil prices are making similar projects more attractive. Bob Kelly is with DKRW, a firm developing a coal-to-liquids manufacturing plant. He says there is a market for synthetic fuel for cars. One challenge is getting financing.
BOB KELLY, CHAIRMAN, DKRW ADVANCED FUELS: You're talking about spending $2 to $3 billion to put these facilities up, so the banks need to get used to financing those types of facilities and those sizes of facilities. It's going to be a new thing for them.
DHUE: Another challenge, environmental issues. Environmentalists call synthetic fuels a step backward. The Sierra Club's Alice McKeown says coal-to-liquid is a disaster.
ALICE MCKEOWN, COAL ANALYST, SIERRA CLUB: From the time the coal is ripped out of our mountains to the time it's burned at the tailpipe, the overall global warming emissions are double those of traditional petroleum- based fossil fuels. At a time when we need to be addressing global warming, that's taking us in the wrong direction.
DHUE: The Air Force says it's working to adopt a synthetic fuel that is greener than current jet fuel.
ANDERSON: We believe that by the time this industry is viable in this country and that will be, at the earliest 2012, that technologies are available even today that will allow us to reduce the environmental footprint of these synthetic fuels below currently available petroleum- based jet fuel.
DHUE: The Air Force sees the synthetic-coal-to liquid as its transition fuel until the next generation of bio-fuel is ready to go. Stephanie Dhue, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.
