North Dakota’s Congressional delegation has engaged in conversation with the Air Force about taking advantage of the state’s “huge coal resources” for the service’s fledgling alternative jet fuel program. A joint statement from Sen. Kent Conrad (D), Sen. Byron Dorgan (D), and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) said that the state has “an 800-year supply of lignite that can be converted to liquid fuel” for jet aircraft. (The Air Force currently is testing coal-derived jet fuel in a B-52 bomber from Minot AFB, N.D.) The legislators also want to interest the Air Force, which is one of the biggest users of green energy, in its “powerful wind energy.”
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.


