Articles and publications written by Wayne

The paper argues that the U.S. military should partially replace the use of imported petroleum diesel in Afghanistan with locally produced biodiesel. Five benefits could potentially be realized: a reduction in U.S. casualties, savings of millions or billions of dollars a year, freeing up troops dedicated to the management of fuel convoys for other assignments, a reduction in poppy cultivation and thus the opium trade of up to 50%, and finally the creation of a new renewable industry in Afghanistan based on agriculture, Afghanistan’s most important economic sector. 

The paper also makes a complementary recommendation that the U.S. should fund the creation of an Afghanistan commodity exchange. A commodity exchange could both support Afghanistan’s critical agricultural sector (including biodiesel crops) and create a new financial industry for Afghanistan.

An executive summary of the paper (five pages) is available here: Afghanistan and Biodiesel, Executive Summary, June 2010