Saturday, April 27, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
The Defense Department is weighing the possibility of rescinding, or at least revising, an overarching directive issued in early 2016 that guides DOD's preparation for climate change impacts, despite commitments by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that the department would continue to prepare to address those impacts in a range of areas.
The Army has set a target for spending on energy conservation measures of roughly $384 million, the service's response to a presidential directive to funnel $2 billion across the government into energy-saving, performance-based contracts within two years.
Lawmakers conferencing the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill have decided to maintain a 2007 energy law provision that bans federal purchases of carbon-intensive alternative fuels, rejecting an attempt by the House to repeal the ban as it applies to the Defense Department.
The Senate has narrowed a broad Pentagon exemption from the Freedom of Information Act contained in the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill, aligning the language in the Senate bill with an earlier House-passed version and gaining the backing of open government groups.
The Defense Department has issued an interim final rule to codify procedures it has been using to quickly determine if proposed private-sector renewable energy projects across the country are likely to interfere with military activities.
The Pentagon is turning to authorities under the Defense Production Act -- a law that allows government incentives to spur the development of defense-essential products -- to advance a variety of energy-related projects in the Defense Department's efforts to improve its energy security, according to a high-level DOD energy official.
Defense Environment Alert -- Senate appropriators in a spending bill approved earlier this month gave a boost to funding for alternative energy research, signaling their support for the Defense Department's prominent role within the federal government on alternative energy technologies even in the midst of major spending cuts.
Defense Environment Alert -- Advocates of the Defense Department's energy savings and alternative energy programs are warning against any attempts to cut deeply into the Pentagon's already modest energy programs as part of a move on Capitol Hill and in the administration to make sweeping cuts to defense spending.
The House voted July 7 to temporarily block the Defense Department from implementing a federal law that prevents DOD from purchasing alternative fuels that emit more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than petroleum, despite administration concerns that halting implementation will undermine the renewable biofuels sector.
The Pentagon office that manages risks related to chemicals and materials the military uses -- and often seeks to influence EPA risk assessments by raising questions over scientific reviews -- is set to lose its director and be absorbed by another environmental directorate, raising questions about how much of the office's work will continue.
Lawmakers are again pushing legislation that would give the Defense Department long-term contracting authority to purchase alternative fuels, a move aimed at jump-starting alternative fuels production, but budgetary scoring issues have kept language on the issue out of the House's fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill.
The House Armed Services Committee chairman's mark of the fiscal year 2012 defense authorization bill would require the Defense Department to designate one of the military service secretaries as the lead for the Pentagon's development of alternative fuels.
The Defense Department -- the federal government's largest consumer of energy -- made small cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 but failed to meet its targets for facility energy and non-tactical vehicle petroleum use, according to a new evaluation and related documents.
The Pentagon's overarching energy conservation program is undergoing revisions that are expected to be reflected in projects funded via the fiscal year 2012 defense appropriations bill, with the department moving the program away from small energy-efficiency projects centered on single buildings and in favor of large projects promising significant savings.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department is under a 60-day deadline to defend to Congress significant cost increases to its alternative chemical weapons destruction program, after signaling last month that it had surpassed the 25 percent threshold set by a 1982 law aimed at curbing escalating costs in weapons programs.
Late last month Congress approved fiscal year 2011 defense authorization legislation that includes several measures aimed at making the Defense Department more energy efficient, better addressing renewable energy conflicts and enhancing energy security -- including an authorization for $120 million to go toward energy conservation and renewable energy projects.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Defense Department's broad interpretation of legal provisions that free DOD and other entities from liability for pollution solely caused by an "act of war" is sparking a conflict with the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal land management agencies at contaminated sites on two Alaskan islands as well as a dispute over language in a draft revised DOD cleanup manual, according to informed sources.
Defense Environment Alert -- The Senate Armed Services Committee is recommending that authorization to fund certain projects related to the Marine Corps' buildup on Guam be deferred until the military has a better idea of the costs and requirements associated with the massive buildup, and has a mitigation plan for minimizing the impacts on the local community and ecosystems from the troop increase.
Defense Environment Alert -- A House lawmaker is pushing comprehensive legislation that aims to address the Defense Department's energy security on a number of fronts -- on the operations side, in acquisition, and at facilities -- and includes funding to accompany some of the proposed new requirements.
Defense Environment Alert -- White House climate and energy adviser Carol Browner plans to look into concerns that the Office of Management and Budget and Energy Department are not providing adequate support for clean-energy projects undertaken by the Pentagon, and that regulations governing such projects provide inadequate credits for renewable energy generated on military bases.