You Will Not Believe what the Defense Department is Spending $58.6 Million For
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While Congress discusses budget cuts for the Pentagon and the Army cuts 40,000 troops due to “budget constraints,” the Department of Defense is splurging on an unexpected expense: alternative fuel.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
The Department of Defense (DOD) has paid $29 per gallon for “alternative fuel” that is nearly nine times the cost of cheaper petroleum fuel options, costing taxpayers a total of $58.6 million, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
From 2007 to 2014, the DOD purchased two million gallons of the alternative fuel. Despite the low cost of petroleum fuels, the DOD has declared that one of its strategic energy goals is to expand its energy supply options through investing in alternative liquid fuels that are derived from non-petroleum feedstocks.
…The DOD currently depends largely on petroleum fuels for military operations. From 2007 to 2014, the DOD purchased 32 billion gallons of petroleum fuel at a cost of about $107.2 billion. During this time period, petroleum fuel cost the Pentagon about $3.35 per gallon.
At $29 per gallon, this shouldn’t be called alternative fuel, it should be called Luxury Fuel. Defenders of the green energy indulgence argue that transitioning to alternative fuels will protect the military from rising petroleum costs, but that’s kind of a silly argument considering they are paying almost 9 times the amount per gallon that they did last year.
The Defense Department and the U.S. military have real wars to worry about, they don’t need to be playing a supporting role in Obama’s War on Energy.