Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, 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 voice vote last year and the year before, and I hope it will do so again.

We have been told this year that the defense budget is so tight that the Air Force has to 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 biofuel for its so-called green fleet at the cost of $26.60 per gallon when conventional petroleum costs just $2.50 per gallon.

These mandates forced the Air Force to pay $59 per gallon for 11,000 gallons of biofuel in 2012--10 times more than regular jet fuel cost. And it is 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 Senator 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 in various facilities. At Naval Station Norfolk, the Navy spent $21 million to install a 10-acre solar array, which will supply a grand total of 2 percent of the base's electricity. According to the Inspector General's Office, this project will save enough money to pay for itself in only 447 years. Too bad solar panels only last 25 years.

We don't know how much all of 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 continues to grow.

We are told this program is necessary to maintain flexibility. Well, shouldn't flexibility free us to get cheaper and more plentiful fuels rather than more expensive and more exotic ones?

We are told the military should do its part for the environment, as if it is possible to fight an environmentally sensitive war.

I feel the real reason for this wasteful spending is part of an ideological agenda imposed on our military that will pointlessly consume billions of defense dollars, namely, to keep money flowing to politically well-connected green energy companies that can't get anybody else to buy their products.

As long as this product continues to consume our defense dollars, we cannot say that we are stretching our defense budget to the utmost.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for pointing out just how much we are wasting in this program. If the Metro stop at the Pentagon cost us $10 billion a year, maybe we should close it; but that is not the point of this bill.

We have to ask ourselves how serious we are about meeting the defense needs of our Nation. We have been constantly warned how poorly funded our military is. 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--$10 billion. Divide that by the number of families in America, and it comes to about $80 per family. It makes a mockery of claims that we have 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 would remind the House of Admiral Mullen'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 have to be able to pay for it, and waste like this robs us of our ability to defend our Nation and the Treasury upon which our defense depends.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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