More Snowpack & The Green Fleet

The US Navy has introduced the "Green Fleet," the first carrier strike group powered partly by biofuel. For the moment the fuel mix is only 10% biofuel, a mix made from beef fat but the Navy plans to draw 50 percent of its power from alternative energy within four years. Critics, including environmentalists, say biofuel production is too costly and on a large scale may do more harm than good if it requires a lot of farmland, fertilizer and fuel to produce. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus contends no land for food production will be used for the biofuels.

The northwest continues to get some good moisture as the jet stream has been shifting northerly bringing potentially another 2 to 4 inches of rain or snow to the mountains. Meteorologist, Brad Rippey says this shift in the jet stream is creating a very optimistic outlook.

RIPPEY: It's positioned to deliver some additional beneficial moisture to the Pacific Northwest as well as the interior northwest and also northern California. We continue to get a pretty good onslaught of Pacific storms. All this translating into the most optimistic western runoff outlook that we have seen in many years specifically going all the way back to the early 2010's when we had a couple of good years in a row then.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.