The US president says he’ll spend billions to turn the world’s largest armed forces green
US President Joe Biden has announced a “process” is underway to make every vehicle in the country’s massive military “climate friendly,” adding that “we’re spending billions of dollars to do it” during an Earth Day celebration on Friday.
The president was in Seattle for the holiday, using his speech in Seward Park as an opportunity to tout his green bona fides. But while the Pentagon is in the process of developing a supposedly “zero emissions” plan for non-tactical fleets, due in 2035, there is no project currently underway to convert all of the vehicles of the world’s most expensive military from fossil fuels to electric.
Such an overhaul would require any potential theater of war to have extensive charging infrastructure for the fleet of electric vehicles, something that simply isn’t possible in most of the countries where the US has bases. The flammability of current models of electric vehicle batteries would also work against a “climate-friendly” military, making the US vehicles much easier to destroy with a well-aimed shot to the battery.
While Biden admitted he had a vintage Corvette that “does nothing but pollute the air,” he took care to qualify the statement by claiming he didn’t drive it “very much.”
The president didn’t stop at his ambitions to make the military green but also boasted that he had “made it clear to [his] friends up in Nantucket and that area” that they were to drop their objections to offshore wind farms planned for the Martha’s Vineyard area. “I don’t want to hear anymore about you don’t like looking at [wind turbines]. They’re pretty,” he claims to have told his wealthy pals. Former president and Biden’s former boss Barack Obama and his wife have a home on Martha’s Vineyard.
Biden has come under fire from climate activists since he was a candidate in the 2020 election. Many have doubted that his history of pro-industry advocacy had truly given way to a change of heart on the environment.
His decision earlier this month to reopen federal lands for oil and gas leases broke a campaign promise, further infuriating the green crusaders his party has courted.
The Biden administration has asked for $773 billion to spend on the military for fiscal year 2023. As massive as this figure may seem, it represents just a 4% increase from last year’s supersized defense budget. It’s unclear what portion of the budget funds requested are earmarked for green initiatives.
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