[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 14, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5854-S5855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. UDALL of Colorado (for himself and Mr. Bennet):
  S. 3585. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to reform 
Department of Defense energy policy, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, today I am introducing 
legislation to help the Pentagon turn energy from a source of risk to a 
source of advantage. The Department of Defense, DOD, Energy Security 
Act would decrease the Pentagon's consumption of petroleum, reduce 
reliance on the grid, and help plan for the future. All of this would 
help achieve an important goal that we all support: enhancing our 
national security.
  I am grateful to my former colleague on the House Armed Services 
Committee, Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who introduced 
the counterpart bill in the House of Representatives. I am also 
grateful to Senator Bennet for cosponsoring this legislation. I look 
forward to continuing to work with both of them on this important 
legislation and on this important issue.
  As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and of the Energy 
and Natural Resources Committee, I have focused on the intersection of 
defense and energy for some time.
  The United States is the world's largest consumer of energy. We 
depend on foreign imports for nearly 60 percent of our oil. Nearly 
every military challenge we face is either derived from or impacted by 
our reliance on fossil fuels and foreign energy sources.
  The Pentagon is a large microcosm of this even larger problem. The 
U.S. military is the single largest consumer of energy in the world--
consuming more energy per day than 85 percent of the world's countries. 
It is the largest electricity consumer in the federal government and 
the single largest buyer of fuel in the United States--using 2 percent 
of our total national consumption.
  Energy supply security affects DOD's ability to accomplish its 
mission, and

[[Page S5855]]

efforts to secure supply lines and deliver fuel in-theater directly 
result in the deaths of service members charged with protecting it. But 
our military's reliance is not just on the battlefield. At home, 
defense facilities rely on a fragile national grid, leaving critical 
assets vulnerable. The Defense Science Board found in its 2008 report 
``More Fight--Less Fuel'' that ``critical national security and 
homeland defense missions are at an unacceptably high risk of extended 
outage from failure of the grid.''
  The Pentagon's energy consumption has serious national security 
implications, but it also presents opportunities. As the Logistics 
Management Institute wrote, ``Aggressively developing and applying 
energy-saving technologies to military applications would potentially 
do more to solve the most pressing long-term challenges facing DOD and 
our national security than any other single investment area.''
  That is why I am introducing this legislation. The Department of 
Defense Energy Security Act addresses energy supply and use by 
decreasing consumption by facilities and vehicles and increasing the 
use of renewable electricity sources to relieve the Department's 
reliance on external power sources. In addition, the bill sets 
overarching policies to implement sustainable acquisition practices, 
sets new DOD Energy Performance Goals, and requires DOD to develop an 
Energy Performance Plan and an implementation assessment for 
accomplishing its goal of deriving 25 percent of its electricity from 
renewable sources by 2025.
  Utilizing alternative energy sources and energy efficiency 
technologies can help our military increase energy reliability and 
reduce its dependence on oil; improve efficiency in operations, 
platforms, and vehicles; reduce the costs to taxpayers of military-
consumed electricity and fuel; expand portable clean technology options 
for use in combat and logistics; act as an anchor customer for the 
alternative fuels and energy efficiency industries; and reduce grid 
vulnerabilities at our military installations.
  Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and foreign sources of energy 
is a goal we all share. Helping the Defense Department achieve this 
goal should be a national priority. I urge my colleagues--of both 
parties--to join me in supporting this legislation.
                                 ______