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The Defense Department faces severe budget cuts; yet, as Hot Air reported yesterday, the Navy bought 450,000 gallons of biofuel for $16 a gallon. The standard marine JP-5, which they usually buy sells for less than $4 a gallon. The Navy bought the fuel from a company named Solazyme, a California energy company which got a $21.8 million grant from the 2009 stimulus package. Oddly enough, the ‘strategic advisor’ to Solazyme is T. J. Glauthier, a member of Obama’s presidential transition team. The article reports that Glauthier worked – shock, shock – on the energy-sector portion of the 2009 stimulus bill. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

The article reports:

Solazyme’s partner in the biofuel sale is Dynamic Fuels, a Louisiana company owned jointly by Tyson Foods and Tulsa-based Syntroleum.  Tyson and Syntroleum are distinguished by having profitable lines of business that do not rely on government grants to unprofitable “green” projects.  This does not make their biofuel product price-competitive with fossil fuels, however.  (They were induced to develop biofuel manufacturing processes by a combination of subsidies and tax breaks.)

There will come a time in the future when alternative energy is practical. That time is not now. When that time comes, the marketplace will develop that fuel at a competitive price and the economy will naturally make the switch. To block the development of America’s domestic fossil fuel resources (which would create jobs and leave the country less vulnerable to petroleum blackmail) while spending large amounts of taxpayer money on alternative energy is not smart. Aside from the crony capitalism aspect of this, it is simply bad economics.