A yr after President Biden advised supporters in Seattle that he needed to “begin the method” to make sure each car utilized by the U.S. navy is “climate-friendly,” Vitality Secretary Jennifer Granholm advised lawmakers that the Pentagon’s complete non-tactical car fleet needs to be powered by electrical energy by 2030.
She lately advised the Senate Armed Providers Committee that it was essential to cut back the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and mentioned the navy may assist cleared the path.
“We all know that international occasions, such because the conflict in Ukraine, can jack up costs for individuals again residence. It doesn’t contribute to power safety,” Ms. Granholm mentioned.
On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio despatched a letter to Protection 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 electrical batteries, President Biden’s calls for for ‘each car’ within the U.S. navy to be climate-friendly solely serves to ramp up our dependence on the (Chinese language Communist Get together,) a regime that seeks to usurp the U.S. as a world financial, technological, and political chief,” wrote Mr. Rubio, Florida Republican.
The Protection Division has greater than 174,000 non-tactical autos, corresponding to vans and Humvees, throughout the providers. It owns the second-largest federal car fleet after the U.S. Postal Service and is the most important institutional client of petroleum on this planet.
“Transitioning the Protection Division’s non-combat fleet to electrical and different zero-emissions autos is a essential step in decreasing our authorities’s carbon emissions,” Sen. Mazie Okay. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, mentioned final yr.
The 2023 Nationwide Protection 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 Military says it’s persevering with the transition of its fleet of non-tactical autos.
“The Military will put money into over 470 charging stations. All garrison commanders will work with business and utility suppliers to find out how finest to develop electrical car charging infrastructure on each Military set up,” the Military mentioned in its 2022 local weather technique plan.
President Biden’s plan to affect the U.S. navy’s car fleet is “deranged,” mentioned the American Vitality Alliance, a conservative think-tank in Washington.
“A completely-electric navy can be costly, costing billions or extra, and can be inherently unreliable,” AEA mentioned in an announcement. “Reliability of apparatus is a cornerstone of navy readiness.”
The Military additionally needs to totally electrify its tactical autos, like tanks and personnel carriers, by 2050, in line with AEA.
“That’s fairly superb when none exist as we speak and when the availability chains for all of the minerals essential are dominated by China,” mentioned the suppose tank’s analysts.