On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the U.S. Navy is planning to break the green barrier. The F/A-18 jet, Navy's fuel guzzler, will take to the skies and go supersonic on biofuel blend—50 percent of the fuel is made up of oil from Camelina sativa plant and 50 percent will be jet fuel.
The move comes as an effort on the part of the Defense Department to use less fossil fuel. Currently, their consumption accounts for 80 percent of the government's energy usage. But the goal is to have 25 percent of this energy come from renewable sources by 2025.
What's especially good about such government investments is they can drive changes in civilian life. When big money goes into building the infrastructure for creating renewable energy, we then can use the same infrastructure for our everyday needs. As commercial aviation increases, so does greenhouse gases emissions.
It's estimated that using biofuels could decrease emissions related to flights by up to 80 percent. Transportation, after the industrial sector, is the second largest energy user in this country. If we can make our flights run on biofuel, hopefully we can do the same for our cars, trains and ships.
Sara Goudarzi is a freelance writer based in New York City.
Her website is saragoudarzi.com
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