Washington (Platts)--13Dec2007
The US military would be required to use wind, solar and other renewable
forms of energy to meet at least 25% of its electricity needs by 2025 under a
provision in a bill that the US House of Representatives passed late
Wednesday.
The provision is in a conference report for the fiscal 2008 defense
authorization bill (H.R. 1585). The House passed the report by an overwhelming
margin of 370-49. The Senate could take up the measure later this week.
The provision would bar the Pentagon from employing "third-party
financing" arrangements to meet the 25% requirement, including the use of
so-called energy-savings performance contracts.
ESPCs, which are commonly used throughout the federal government, allow
agencies to avoid incurring large up-front costs for energy-efficiency
projects by paying private-sector providers for the resulting energy savings.
The bill, though, would allow the defense secretary to waive the 25%
requirement if he or she believes that it is in the "best interests" of the
Defense Department to do so. The Pentagon would also have to notify the House
and Senate Armed Services committees before waiving the requirement.
The 25% requirement would codify a non-binding goal that DOD currently
has to derive 9% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. The 25%
provision was spearheaded by Representative Robert Andrews, a New Jersey
Democrat.
Andrews said earlier this year that his amendment "would generate a
$15-billion market in the purchase of electricity generated by renewable
fuels." It would also help the US "greatly reduce [its] dependence upon
non-renewable fuels generally, and imported non-renewable fuels specifically,"
Andrews added.
Andrews estimates the Pentagon spends more than $3 billion per year on
buying electricity for its facilities around the world. He said the waiver
clause would ensure that the 25% renewable-electricity requirement would not
impair US "defense and security goals."
--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com
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