Burning 9,000 gallons of fuel for Earth Day
On Earth Day, President Barack Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One to get to a wind turbine plant in Iowa, burning more than 9,000 gallons of fuel.
President Barack Obama spent Earth Day in Iowa, touting the benefits of wind energy. But his own efforts to conserve energy are nothing but a bunch of hot air (I know, it’s an easy, and horrible, pun). While traveling to Newton, Iowa, the president used up more than 9,000 gallons of fuel taking two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One.
One’s got to wonder, couldn’t he have just sent a nifty YouTube video like he did with Iran?
From the Political Hotsheet at CBS News:
… Boeing says its 747 burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile. It’s 895 miles from Washington to Des Moines, so a round trip brings the fuel consumption for the fixed-wing portion of the President’s trip to 8,950 gallons.
The trip also put President Obama on Marine One for round-trip flights between the White House and Andrews AFB and between Des Moines International Airport and Newton, Iowa, site of his Earth Day speech. It totaled about an hour of flight time. The VH-3D that serves as Marine One consumes about 1200 pounds of fuel per hour which comes out to about 166 gallons consumed flying the President today.
Not included in these calculations are the presidential vehicles that took him the short distance from the landing zone in Newton to the event site at the Trinity Structural Towers Manufacturing Plant.
In his speech there, President Obama called for a “new era of energy exploration in America.”
Sources:
CBS News Political Hotsheet, April 22, 2009
Obama Earth Day Flights Burned More Than 9,000 Gallons Of Fuel
The Washington Post, April 22, 2009
