OPINION:
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Senate Armed Services Committee members that she’s A-OK with the military going full-blown electrical.
And all the communists in China go — yay. It’s China, after all, that’s a leading seller of the core elements needed for electrically energized vehicles.
But this is really a doomsday maneuver for America’s military.
The Army alone has more than 242,000 wheeled tactical vehicles, from Humvees to armored combat support vehicles to light utility trucks. Then there are the non-tactical vehicles; the ones used on Army bases make up a federal fleet that’s second in size only to the U.S. Postal Service’s. Past attempts to go green haven’t always gone well.
Remember Barack Obama’s Great Green Fleet?
Then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus pushed for seven or so years to phase out fossil fuels and instead fill up Naval ships and aircraft with fuel made from plants and manure and corn and animal fat. It was a tax-payer-funded disaster.
“Navy Sinks Obama-Era Green Destroyer Program,” one Heartland Institute headline blared in May of 2018.
The piece went on to report: “According to the March 8 issue of ‘Defense News,’ the Navy estimated the cost of the program at $354.25 million in fiscal year 2017.”
Obama’s 2019 budget removed the funding for the Navy’s Hybrid Electric Drive program.
Oh, well. It’s only tax dollars at waste. Live and learn.
Or not.
“Electric Military Vehicles Are Part of Biden Climate Agenda, Pentagon Says,” Military.com reported in late 2021.
As a matter of fact, President Biden’s climate agenda is the priority for all of his various Cabinets, agencies, departments and the like. Biden himself promised this during his campaign; he promised it during key speeches of his presidency; he promised it again, just a few days ago.
“President Biden to Catalyze Global Climate Action through the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate,” the White House reported in a fact sheet posted online, dated April 20.
But greening the military is a dangerous endeavor.
Shouldn’t the commander-in-chief be more concerned about readying the troops, Marines, sailors and other members of America’s fighting branches for war — for combat — for the defense of domestic and foreign interests, rather than for pollution control?
“I think energy security is achieved when we have homegrown, clean energy that is abundant, like you see in Iowa,” Granholm said.
What does she want — tanks tied to windmills?
There are truths to the security of America through energy independence. But that only works if those in power allow for the mining, drilling, producing of sources of energy that are found domestically — and this administration, under Biden, because of Biden, has only clamped America’s ability to exploit these natural domestic sources.
Democrats can’t have it both ways.
They can’t crow about the need for energy independence, all the while clamping abilities to farm energy domestically.
What’s really happening here is the Democratic Party, under Biden’s watch and lead, is taking America down a path where climate change policy dictates everything; where politicians push ridiculous goals like zero-emission energies — and force producers to abide or close shop; and where energy will one day become just another blessing government bureaucrats can bestow those they favor — and conversely, strictly regulate and limit for those they don’t favor.
It’s one thing to put a smart meter on a person’s home, thereby laying the groundwork to monitor, control, regulate and possibly limit that person’s ability to heat or cool the home. That’s the socialist way; that’s the communist vision.
It’s another thing entirely to make the military put pollution as its top concern by forcing a change in fuel that’s more pie-in-the-sky than readily available and effective. That’s setting America on a path for takeover.
It’s more than discomforting to realize that the Biden plan for America’s military of the future is one electromagnetic pulse away from grinding to a halt.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.