WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 17, 2016 – (RealEstateRama) — The House of Representative today passed an amendment offered by Congressman McClintock to forbid scarce defense dollars from being spent to fund Green Energy Executive Orders. The amendment was adopted to the 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill. The Congressman’s remarks in support of the amendment are attached:
Green Energy Executive Orders
Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock
Amendment to Department of Defense Appropriations Bill
House of Representatives, Washington D.C.
This amendment forbids scarce defense dollars from being spent to fund two executive orders and several other provisions of law that require the military to squander billions of dollars on so-called “Green Energy.”
The House adopted this amendment by a voice vote last year and the year before and I hope it will do so again.
We have been told that the defense budget is so tight that the Air Force must scavenge museums for spare aircraft parts.
Yet it seems we have plenty of defense money to indulge the “Green Energy” mandates that are imposed upon our armed forces.
The GAO reports that these mandates have cost the Navy as much as $150 per gallon for jet fuel. In 2012, the Navy was forced to purchase 450,000 gallons of bio-fuel for its so-called “Green Fleet at the cost of $26.60 per gallon, when conventional petroleum cost just $2.50 per gallon.
These mandates forced the Air Force to pay $59 per gallon for 11,000 gallons of biofuel in 2012 – ten times more than regular jet fuel cost.
It’s not just biofuels.
Two years ago, the Pentagon was required to purchase over 1,000 Chevy Volts, at a subsidized price of $40,000 each.
As Sen. Coburn’s office pointed out, “each one of these $40,000 Chevy Volts represents the choice NOT to provide an entire infantry platoon with all new rifles, or 50,000 rounds of ammunition that cannot be used for realistic training.”
These “green energy” mandates have required the Army and Navy to install solar arrays at various facilities. At Naval Station Norfolk, the Navy spent $21 million to install a ten acre solar array – which will supply a grand total of two percent of the base’s electricity.
According to the Inspector General’s office, this project will save enough money to pay for itself in just 447 years. Too bad that solar panels only last about 25 years.
We don’t know exactly how much these mandates waste because, as the GAO reports, “There is currently no comprehensive inventory of which federal agencies are implementing renewable energy related initiatives and the types of initiatives they are implementing.” But outside estimates are as much as $10 billion for the Department of Defense last year; a figure that is expected to grow in the future.
We’re told this program is necessary for flexibility. Really? Shouldn’t “flexibility” free us to get cheaper and more plentiful fuels – not more expensive and exotic ones?
We’re told that the military should do its part for the environment – as if it is possible to fight an environmentally sensitive war.
That, I fear, is the real reason for this wasteful spending. It is part of an ideological agenda imposed on our military that will pointlessly consume billions of defense dollars, mainly to keep money flowing to politically well-connected “green energy” companies that can’t get anyone else to buy their products.
We have to ask ourselves how serious we are about meeting the defense needs of our nation.
We have constantly warned how poorly funded is our military. The program this amendment would end is an estimated $10 billion of sheer waste – grossly inflated energy costs that come directly out of our military preparedness.
Ten billion dollars. Divide that by the number of families in America – it comes to about $80 per family. It makes a mockery of claims we’ve cut the military to the bone and puts the lie to any claim that we are serious about meeting our basic defense needs without bankrupting our country.
I remind the House once again of Admiral Mullin’s chilling warning: that in his professional military judgment, our greatest national security threat is the national debt – because before we can provide for the common defense we must be able to pay for it. And waste like this robs us of our ability to defend our nation and maintain the treasury upon which our defense depends.
