Aside from the absurdity of anti-American greens dictating defense policy, Congressional Republicans also apparently feel that it’s much better to buy oil from OPEC than from Canada or U.S. producers.
Greenwire reports,
After months of debate and sustained campaigns from trade organizations, environmentalists and veterans groups, next year’s defense bill emerged from conference last night without a House-passed provision repealing a 2007 ban on government purchase of dirty fuels.
The issue — whether the U.S. government should be forbidden from purchasing fuels with a higher lifetime greenhouse gas footprint than traditional petroleum — has come up in a number of spending bills this year. But it has struck an especially strong chord as it relates to the Defense Department, the government’s largest purchaser of fuel.
“From our point of view, this is a real win for advanced biofuels and helping DOD shield itself from future price shocks, and helping to make the nation more secure,” said Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Environmental Group’s clean energy program. Her group and others supporting the ban say it is a key driver in the military’s work on alternative fuels and an important signal to investors.
But those who urge repeal of the ban say it places a burden on the military, whose job is to fight and win wars, not improve the environment…
The purpose of the 2007 energy bill provision was to prevent the military from purchasing products refined from tar sands or coal-to-liquids processing.