U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Applauds Inclusion of Energy-Saving Initiatives in Defense Bill

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has successfully included groundbreaking energy-saving initiatives in the National Defense Authorization Act, bipartisan legislation to fund our armed forces next year.

"The Pentagon is the world's largest consumer of petroleum products, with much of those products imported from nations unfriendly to our interests," said Giffords, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. "For the security of our nation and the safety of our men and women in the military who transport this petroleum, we must change our thinking on energy use."

The House today, in a 341-to-48 vote, approved the National Defense Authorization Act. The bill now goes to the Senate which is expected to quickly approve it and send it to the president for his signature.

The legislation includes $243 million that Giffords sought for energy conservation and renewable energy projects.

Giffords stressed that her primary concerns are national security and the safety of men and women in the American armed forces. In 2007, the congresswoman said, 170 service members lost their lives in attacks on fuel convoys. In 2008, during an average month, 220,000 gallons of fuel were lost to ambushes, attacks and accidents.

Each day, the U.S. military consumes nearly 400,000 barrels of fuel. In Iraq and Afghanistan, that amounts to nearly 68 million gallons of fuel a month.

To lessen the dependence on imported petroleum, Giffords in May introduced the Department of Defense Energy Security Act, that would increase the safety of our men and women on the front lines and help reduce the Pentagon's $20 billion annual fuel bill through a number of specific steps.

"Our enemies are critically aware of our reliance on oil, and they are using it to their advantage," the congresswoman said when she introduced the bill. "Instead of fighting the enemy, thousands of service members are dedicated to securing supply lines so that fuel can reach forward operating bases and far-reaching outposts."

Some provisions of Giffords' bill are included in the National Defense Authorization Act approved today.

The bill requires the Pentagon to consider the use of hybrid and high-efficiency vehicles as long as they meet operational requirements. It also requires the Pentagon to make critical defense infrastructure more resilient to electrical grid outages and vulnerabilities.

The bill also authorizes the Defense Department to carry out a program to test smart and secure microgrid technologies. The program would partner a military installation with a national laboratory to evaluate and validate microgrid components and systems for deployment.

Also included are provisions requiring competition on energy-saving performance contracts.

Giffords' legislation is supported by R. James Woolsey, an expert on national security who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Woolsey, who wrote about the need to diversify our nation's energy portfolio in a guest opinion published in the Wall Street Journal, thanked Giffords for her leadership on this important issue. "Since her first day in Congress, Congresswoman Giffords has established herself as a champion of responsible renewable energy," Woolsey said in May when Giffords introduced her bill. "She not only talks the talk, she walks the walk."

Noting that eight of the nine largest oil exporters in the world are dictatorships, Woolsey said Giffords' bill will help establish "greater resilience" in our energy supply.

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