Not everyone is feeling the pangs of the sequestration. It appears the DOD has enough extra cash lying around to pay nearly 16x the price of conventional jet fuel for "green" jet fuel.
TheBlaze.com is reporting that the military has just signed a contract with renewable chemical and biofuel company Gevo.
"The renewable chemical and biofuel company Gevo in its first quarter investor relations report stated that it signed a contract with the Defense Logistics Agency to supply 3,650 gallons of renewable jet fuel.
The order, worth $215,350 total ($59/gallon), is set to be delivered by 2013′s second quarter and has the option to be increased to 12,500 gallons, which would cost up to $737,500.
Gevo calls this an “initial testing phase.”
Under other contracts, the company already supplies renewable jet fuel for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.
As the Washington Examiner pointed out, DLA set conventional JP-8 jet fuel as costing $3.78 per gallon at FY 2013 rates."
"So we can't do the White House tours. We have suspended important activities in the military. We've curtailed training and we've furloughed civilian personnel... but we haven't stopped the green fuel program at $59 a gallon." Pat said.
After doing the math, Stu pointed out that the convention jet fuel would cost $60,000, as opposed to $956,852.
"Is there one other country on Earth that would pay $59 a gallon for jet fuel when they were paying $3.73?" Pat asked. "I mean, there's nobody that stupid."
Nope. Just us, Pat.
"This absolutely has to go into the record because nobody would believe this," Glenn said. "Nobody would believe this. And in 25 years from now, our kids will look at us and say, 'What the hell was wrong with you?'."
"I hope they do," Pat responded. "I hope they haven't been so reconditioned and trained that they think all this was a good thing."
Pat noted that it would be one thing if the price went up a couple of dollars — from $3.25 to maybe $5. If you really thought you were doing something that would help "save the planet," maybe you would pay a little more.
"At $10, I wouldn't do it," Glenn said drawing his line in the sand.
"Yeah, exactly. I mean, when you look at this, first of all, you don't take these chances with the military. The military is the last place you would implement a new technology like this that's supposed to save a few dollars for whatever. But when you look at where emissions come from, it's not planes. It's large industrial power plants. The entire transportation sector is only about one fifth of our emissions," Stu explained. "So even if you turned off all the planes, all the cars and everything, you'd only save 20% and, you know, emissions grow about 3% a year anyway."
Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images
