[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 190 (Friday, December 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S7318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    McALESTER ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I rise today to express my gratitude to 
the Armed Services Committee and Energy and Natural Resources Committee 
for working to include an important provision that passed as part of 
the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (FY25 NDAA). 
The provision is in section 1706, titled ``Use of royalty gas at 
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.''
  The Department of Defense has issued a charge to ensure that all U.S. 
military installations are energy resilient by 2035. Under 10 U.S.C. 
Sec. 2911, the Secretary of Defense is responsible for ``ensur[ing] the 
readiness of the armed forces for their military missions by pursuing 
energy security and energy resilience.'' In implementing this section 
of the U.S. Code, the Department of Defense has pursued a plan to 
establish microgrids at all military installations, utilizing a diverse 
array of energy sources to be energy resilient. In FY 2022, the 
Department of Defense consumed $4.2 billion in fuel for installation 
energy. Further, natural gas was the largest nonelectric fuel source, 
used in almost 75 percent of installation energy consumption. As my 
colleagues know, the purpose of energy resilience is to ensure our 
military installations are able to continue operations in the event of 
a local, gridwide, or national energy supply disruption.
  In 2021, Senate Report 117-39, which accompanied the National Defense 
Authorization Act of 2016, requested that the Department of Defense 
review a 2016 analysis of installations with likely gas and oil 
reserves to provide a recommendation for a pilot site to initiate use 
of on-site mineral reserves for energy resilience and security 
purposes. The program aimed to provide the installation with onsite 
energy production, light refining, storage, and onsite generation to 
maintain critical operations during grid outages. The report stated 
that the Department of Defense had an absence of general statutory 
authority for the Department of Defense to extract and use minerals at 
installations. The report also includes a list of nearly 150 military 
installations that are located within 25 miles of the top 100 most 
productive natural gas and oil reserves in the United States, of which 
McAlester is one.
  In order to clarify the authorities necessary for the deployment of 
natural gas resources for the use of military energy resilience and 
security, I worked with the Senate Armed Services Committee and Energy 
and Natural Resources Committee to include section 1706 of the FY25 
NDAA. This provision would provide the appropriate authorities for 
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, OK, to develop natural 
gas on the installation for energy resilience purposes. This language 
would require coordination between the Department of Defense and 
Department of the Interior to allow McAlester Army Ammunition Plant to 
produce, treat, manage, and use national gas by contracting with 
appropriate entities to meet directives from the Department of Defense 
for energy resiliency.
  This authority has been years in the making starting from efforts led 
by Oklahoma's former senior Senator and my friend, the late Jim Inhofe. 
The language also includes feedback and technical assistance from the 
Department of Defense, the Bureau of Land Management, multiple 
committees in the House and Senate, and Senate leadership. There is 
already precedent for the production and use of natural gas on military 
installations, as is the case with Fort Knox in Kentucky. The strategic 
use of energy such as natural gas promotes the readiness of the Armed 
Forces for their military mission. I urge the Department of Defense to 
swiftly implement this authority, and I congratulate McAlester on the 
opportunity to reach energy resiliency and continue the great work they 
do for our national security.

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