Gingrey Amendment Promotes Use Of Alternative Energy Sources

Press Release

Late Thursday evening, the U.S. House adopted an amendment co-offered by Congressman Phil Gingrey to H.R. 6599, the Fiscal Year 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. This amendment will allow the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce energy costs by purchasing and using alternative fuels made from domestic energy sources. The amendment, co-authored by Congressman Jeb Hensarling, Congressman Phil Gingrey, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and Congressman Mike Conaway, will prohibit funding in this bill from being used to enforce Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This law prevents the federal government from purchasing many alternative fuels that could be developed within this country like coal-to-liquid, oil shale, and tar sands.

"This amendment makes a good bill even better," said Gingrey. "It is crucial that we provide needed funding for our nation's veterans and I am proud that this amendment will save the VA money on energy costs, freeing up funds that can be spent providing the health care and quality of life our veterans deserve. This amendment takes the handcuffs off of our military's energy policy and allows it to cultivate the various alternative fuels we can safely produce in this country."

The Fiscal Year 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act is expected to pass the House on Friday morning. Upon passage, it will be sent to the U.S. Senate for its consideration.

Below, please find the prepared floor remarks by Congressman Gingrey in support of this amendment.

Rep. Phil Gingrey
Statement for Hensarling/Conaway/Blackburn/Gingrey Amendment to HR 6599
House Floor

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Hensarling Amendment to prohibit any of the funds in this bill to be used to enforce Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. I join my colleagues Mr. Conaway of Texas and Mrs. Blackburn of Tennessee as a proud cosponsor of this amendment so that we can foster the use of the readily available domestic resources to reduce the federal government's fuel costs.

Section 526 has placed an artificial limitation on the ability of federal agencies - including the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs - to utilize alternative fuel sources for their energy needs; even if they could be safely developed within the United States. It does so by stating that the federal government cannot purchase alternative fuels even if it has one scintilla more carbon footprint than their conventional counterparts. These domestic energy sources would reduce the cost of fuel and save the American taxpayers billions of dollars. Yet, this misguided Section 526 handcuffs our energy policy.

While families across this nation pay higher and higher prices for their own fuel needs at the pump, the shackles of Section 526 ensure that they will also bear the full cost of the federal government's fuel needs, no matter how high they may go.

Mr. Chairman, the Department of Defense alone accounts for approximately 80% of all fuel usage by the federal government and uses 380,000 barrels of refined products per day. Over the last 5 years, the DoD's fuel expenses have more than doubled from $5.2 billion in 2003 to $12.6 billion. The DoD has done its part to counter high energy costs, decreasing consumption by 7.1% during that same period. With current oil prices at historically high levels, DoD can count on spending an additional $9.9 billion this year alone on fuel costs.

Unfortunately, Section 526 prevents DoD from cultivating clean carbon capture technologies - coal-to-liquid, oil shale, and oil sands. This innovation will allow the military and the rest of the federal government to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy by utilizing abundant resources here within the United States.

Mr. Chairman, both the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs have fixed annual budgets. Rising fuel costs only divert funds within the agencies from the priorities of providing our active duty military with critical infrastructure needs or giving our veterans - who bravely served our country - the health care and quality and life that they deserve. Because Section 526 limits our innovation capabilities, it is our military families and veterans who suffer.

This is the specific reason that our amendment was offered - so that we can allow the continued development of emerging technologies to lower the overall cost for fuel that the federal government pays. This would also institute a more practical and realistic energy policy that is not driven by radical environmentalists who are content with skyrocketing fuel prices.

Mr. Chairman, I commend Mr. Hensarling for his leadership on this issue. I urge all of my colleagues to support this very thoughtful amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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