HRS Military Biofuels Report Attracts Significant Press Coverage
In the Fall 2012, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) commissioned High Road Strategies to conduct a study to evaluate the potential economic impacts of Department of Defense (DoD) goals to procure at least fifty percent of their fuels used their aviation and marine fleets by 2020. E2, a partner of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is a national community of individual business leaders who advocate for good environmental policy while building economic prosperity (see www.E2.org). The results of the study are presented in the HRS report, The Economic Benefits of Military Biofuels, completed November 10, 2012. They conclude that if the DoD meets its announced biofuel goals, it will generate around $10-$20 billion of new economic activity, accompanied by between 14,000-17,000 new jobs created, by 2020. Many of the new jobs would be agricultural jobs involved in biomass feedstock production and in biorefinery operation, while as many as 10,000 jobs could be created from constructing new biorefineries to produce the biofuels used by the military. The report also observes that military demand would help shape the early market and scale the advanced biofuel industry, which could ultimately help the commercial aviation industry and other industries greatly increase their adoption of advanced biofuels on a large scale. E2 announced the release of the report in a press call on November 14, 2010. The press release was picked up and reported on by nearly 100 industry, military, traditional news, and environmental media services, including E&E Greenwire, Biofuels Journal, SeaPower Magazine, Stars & Stripes, IHS Energy Daily, Climate Solutions, Detroit Morning News and the Sacramento Bee, among many others (links to press coverage here here and here).
Leave a Reply