U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was recently a guest contributor for UT-San Diego. His piece is fascinating and includes a historical perspective on energy use by the Navy. One of his main arguments for increasing biofuel use in the Navy is the fluctuating and rising cost of imported oil. He says that, in 1994, the US consumed almost 18 million barrels of fuel each day. China and India combined consumed almost five million barrels a day at that time. However, today, those two hugely populated nations consume about 13 million barrels daily. The ever increasing global oil demand has pushed costs higher, and is likely to continue to do so.
