A 12 months after President Biden informed supporters in Seattle that he needed to “start the process” to make sure each car utilized by the U.S. navy is “climate-friendly,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm informed lawmakers that the Pentagon’s complete non-tactical car fleet must be powered by electrical energy by 2030.
She not too long ago informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that it was important to scale back the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and mentioned the navy may assist cleared the path.
“We know that global events, such as the war in Ukraine, can jack up prices for people back home. It does not contribute to energy security,” Ms. Granholm mentioned.
On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio despatched a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying her feedback had been solely the newest in a stream of efforts coming from the Biden administration to prioritize progressive insurance policies over nationwide protection.
“Given our reliance on China for electric batteries, President Biden’s demands for ‘every vehicle’ in the U.S. military to be climate-friendly only serves to ramp up our dependence on the (Chinese Communist Party,) a regime that seeks to usurp the U.S. as a global economic, technological, and political leader,” wrote Mr. Rubio, Florida Republican.
The Defense Department has greater than 174,000 non-tactical autos, akin to vehicles and Humvees, throughout the companies. It owns the second-largest federal car fleet after the U.S. Postal Service and is the biggest institutional shopper of petroleum on the earth.
“Transitioning the Defense Department’s non-combat fleet to electric and other zero-emissions vehicles is a critical step in reducing our government’s carbon emissions,” Sen. Mazie Ok. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, mentioned final 12 months.
The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act included measures that will set a 2035 goal for the Pentagon’s non-tactical autos to be electrical or in any other case zero-emissions. The Army says it’s persevering with the transition of its fleet of non-tactical autos.
“The Army will invest in over 470 charging stations. All garrison commanders will work with industry and utility suppliers to determine how best to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure on every Army installation,” the Army mentioned in its 2022 local weather technique plan.
President Biden’s plan to impress the U.S. navy’s car fleet is “deranged,” mentioned the American Energy Alliance, a conservative think-tank in Washington.
“A fully-electric military would be expensive, costing billions or more, and would be inherently unreliable,” AEA mentioned in a press release. “Reliability of equipment is a cornerstone of military readiness.”
The Army additionally desires to totally electrify its tactical autos, like tanks and personnel carriers, by 2050, in keeping with AEA.
“That’s pretty amazing when none exist today and when the supply chains for all the minerals necessary are dominated by China,” mentioned the suppose tank’s analysts.
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