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Ernst seeks to slow Pentagon transition to electric vehicles – By Bryant Harris and Joe Gould (Defense News) / Dec 14, 2022
WASHINGTON — Congress is pushing the U.S. Department of Defense to transition its vast fleet of non-tactical electric vehicles away from fossil fuels over the next 12 years. But at least one Republican senator says not so fast.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, added language to the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would set an additional barrier for the Pentagon – the world’s largest institutional fossil fuel consumer – to purchase non-tactical electric, advanced-biofuel or hydrogen-powered vehicles. The House passed the NDAA 350-80 last week, and the Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of the month.
“It’s an expensive investment for an unreliable product constrained by a [Chinese Communist Party-controlled], child and slave labor-powered supply chain,” Ernst told Defense News in a statement. “The NDAA should never prioritize climate politics over national security, and Democrats were forced to concede that point in this year’s defense bill.”
