Defense Dept. memo bashes push to lift high-carbon fuels ban

A Defense Department memo circulated on Capitol Hill this week spells out the military’s opposition to GOP-led efforts to lift a ban on military purchase of alternative fuels that have higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil-based fuels.

The House, over the department’s opposition, approved an amendment to defense spending legislation Thursday to exempt the military from the federal procurement ban that was included in a 2007 energy law.

But the July 5 memo that opposed the amendment nonetheless provides a window into the military’s position as the issue heads to the Senate.

“The existing law has not, in any way, prevented the department from meeting its current mission needs,” states the memo obtained by The Hill.

It adds:

DoD opposes this provision because the Department supports the goals and intent behind the current law. This exemption could further increase America's reliance on non-renewable fuels. Our dependence on those types of fuels degrades our national security, negatively impacts our economy, and harms our planet. This exemption would also send a negative signal to America's advanced biofuel industry and could result in adverse impacts to U.S. job creation, rural development efforts, and the export of world leading technology. 

The House passed the fiscal 2012 defense spending bill Friday, including the amendment attached Thursday that prevents use of the bill’s funds to enforce Section 526 of the 2007 energy law.

Separate defense-program authorizing legislation the House approved in May would exempt the Defense Department from the ban.

But the Senate — where several Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are also pushing to repeal Section 526 — hasn’t yet brought defense spending or authorizing legislation to the floor.

Section 526, authored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), was largely aimed at blocking the purchase of coal-based liquid fuels — an industry that hasn’t taken off anyway.



But it has also raised fears about complicating acquisition of fuels from refineries that use oil from Canada’s greenhouse-gas-intensive oil sands projects, which represent a growing source of U.S. supply.