Press Releases
House Adopts Flores Amendment Promoting Energy Independence for Defense DepartmentYesterday, the House adopted an amendment by voice vote offered by U.S. Congressmen Bill Flores (R-Texas) and Mike Conaway (R-Texas) to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. This bill overwhelmingly passed the House today with a vote of 411-5. The amendment states that no funds shall be made available to enforce Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. U.S. Congressman Bill Flores (R-Texas) delivered the following remarks on the House floor regarding the amendment, which would allow the government to utilize American-made energy when purchasing fuel:
To view Congressman Flores’ full floor speech, click here. Excerpts: “During the 110th Congress, there was a section added to the Energy Independence and Security Act that does not allow federal agencies to enter into a contract for procurement of an alternative fuel unless the ‘lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions,’ are less than or equal to such emissions from an equivalent conventional fuel produced from conventional petroleum sources. This amendment would simply prohibit the government from enforcing this ban on the federal agencies funded by the underlying bill.” “The Defense Department should not be wasting its time studying fuel emissions and should not have to be stifled by the arguments over how to interpret a small section of an energy law. This is an unacceptable burden to continue to place on our Nation’s military and veterans and is an unacceptable precedent to set in regard to America’s energy policy.” ### |
