COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) toured an alternative energy research facility at the U.S. Air Force Academy here today and vowed that he will continue to champion the military's ongoing effort to develop biofuels in the name of national security.

Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee and a vocal supporter of the military's renewable energy research, led efforts in the Senate last fall to push through an amendment repealing a section of the National Defense Authorization Act that would have required the Department of Defense to forgo advanced biofuels if the cost were higher than that of conventional fossil fuels (E&ENews PM, Nov. 28, 2012).

Today, Udall toured the Air Force Academy's Life Sciences Research Center, which among other things is conducting research into the use of single-cell algae to fuel vehicles and, perhaps someday, military aircraft.

The Air Force has set a goal of fueling jets with a 50-50 blend of drop-in biofuel by 2016, and the Navy aims to do the same by 2020. The biofuels are believed to have a molecular structure similar to that of fossil fuels that could be used in existing engines (ClimateWire, Nov. 29, 2012).

"This is not science fiction, it's science fact that we can use algae as a feedstock to replace a significant portion in the long run of the oil that we import from overseas," Udall said during a brief interview outside the Academy's North Gate entrance. "As a proponent of an all-of-the-above energy strategy, I make no bones about the more homegrown American energy you can produce the better for national security, job creation."

The Defense Department is exploring ways to incorporate alternative energy sources in an effort to improve energy security and reduce the military's reliance on insecure sources of petroleum.

"In particular, algae holds long-term promise because the oil that's produced from algae is most like the fossil fuel oil that we produce here in our own country, and that we also import from places that don't particularly like us," Udall said.

He said the military spends as much as $80 billion a year to protect oil supply lines and has noted in the past that more than 3,000 U.S. service members have been killed or wounded on fuel convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

"If we can produce that same product here through other means, it's a bonus for our country in many, many ways," he added. "There are no downsides."

But not everyone agrees. The military's biofuel work has been a target of GOP leaders in Congress, including Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, who has argued that the effort is a waste of military money.

Still, the Navy last year conducted a "Great Green Fleet" demonstration off the coast of Hawaii that featured Navy fighter jets zooming off the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier on fuel made from a mix of cooking grease, algae oil and traditional petroleum. The Navy said the demonstration marked the first time a 50-50 blend of biofuels had been run through an entire operational system (Greenwire, July 19, 2012).

"It's the area in which the most opportunity presents itself" on the renewable energy front, Udall said. "By that, I mean wind energy is becoming more and more mature, we know a lot about the basic technology when it comes to photovoltaic solar energy, we've determined how to tap geothermal energy. But this area of biofuels, synthetic fuels, still has enormous promise. We think the breakthroughs are going to be very significant and very important economically, environmentally and national-security-wise.

"The military has always led the way in finding and applying new technologies," he added. "Whether in the medical sector, the information technology sector, in the satellite world and in energy. So this is in the long tradition of the military, pushing the technological envelope in the pursuit of greater national security."