U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has been saying for years now that he supports research into renewable energy, and wants to “green” the Navy. And he’s so dedicated to the cause that he’s said in the past his goal is to reduce the Navy’s use of fossil fuels by 50 percent by 2020.
But a handful of House Republicans, including Colorado Springs U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, want him to knock it off.
On March 6, a group of 14 members of Congress sent Mabus a letter telling him that spending more money on researching renewable energy would be like pouring money down the sink, and that for the time being, he should rely on fossil fuels.
“Your priorities for utilizing green energy are not matched by the mission of the Navy,” the letter reads. “We realize and expect that the cheapest energy will not always be the safest energy. However, we object to and cannot endorse an effort to ‘green’ the Navy just for the sake of greening the Navy.”
“Our Navy’s goals are winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas. Every dollar that is not directed towards these goals is a dollar wasted.”
The letter argues that with the federal budget running an enormous deficit and military spending being cut, now is not the time to pursue prospective energy sources. Rather, the House Republicans write, the Navy’s money would be better spent on tried and true fossil fuels that are more affordable.
“Paying such high prices for alternative fuels yields only greater overall costs to absorb in this time of shrinking budgets; this proves especially troublesome given the Navy is already faced with a glaring shortfall in fleet size,” the letter reads. “We must ensure that every dollar spent demonstrates a cost savings associated with the investment.”
The letter was written in response to written testimony that Mabus had submitted to the House Armed Services Committee, of which Lamborn is a member. Most of the others who signed are also members, including Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman, R-Aurora.
Read the letter here: Multiple Members of Congress_Concerns energy statements
lambron the lame brain.
no I dont agree to follow your user agreement
14 Congressmen out of 500+. People love to follow Doug’s lead.
Keep us in the dark ages! Big oil and big coal keep me in office! If we adapt, we all will die! Now, everyone go to church or else!
I’m ashamed he’s my “representative”
Please tell me that the Secretary politely thank the Congressman for his input, and quickly chucked it in the garbage….
I’m curious if Mr. Lamborn had the same opinion when the AFA installed those solar panels……
He continues to be a complete embarrassment to Colorado Springs… could he be much more obvious at to who his owners are because he sure doesn’t seem to believe he has any obligation to us!
I agree Rep Lamborn. The free markets should be developing this if it even can work at this time. The drive for profit will produce products that actually work and consumer demand will make the products at a price that consumer’s can afford. The government just forces bad products on the market regardless if they are productive and affordable… according to their agenda.
Here is a quote from “REA’s Problem Solvers: Economics” ©1998:
“PURE CAPITALISM VS PURE SOCIALISM
Problem 32:13…
Contrast the ways in which the amounts and types of goods and services to be produced are determined under the capitalist and socialist systems, respectively.
“Capitalism is characterized by private ownership of the means of production. A privately-owned firm has no source of revenue other than the sale of its output. In order for a producer to recover his costs of production and perhaps make a profit as well, consumers must find his products sufficiently attractive, compared to all the available alternative uses of their incomes, to buy them. Each producer in a capitalist, market economy is continually under the necessity of adjusting the types and quantities of his products to suit the (ever changing) desires of consumers, in order to avoid making losses and eventually dissipating his capital. Thus, it is ultimately the consumers in a capitalist system who, by their buying patterns, determine which lines of production are profitable and which not, and hence into which lines of production profit-seeking entrepreneurs will direct resources.
vs
The socialist system, on the other hand, is characterized by control of the means of production by the central government. In determining what is to be produced and in what quantity, the central planning board is not primarily influenced by considerations of consumer demand (and profitability). In contrast to the market economy, where resources are attracted through profits and losses into those lines of production most urgently demanded by consumers, central planners can redirect resources from “profitable” industries (i.e., where total revenues exceed total costs) into “unprofitable” industries (i.e., where total revenues fall short of total costs), in accordance with state-determined priorities, regardless of the revealed preferences of consumers. Since no independent producers compete with the state-run industries, consumers in a socialist economy have little choice but to accept the types and quantities of goods decided upon by the central planners and produced by the state industries. Nevertheless, shortages and excesses of various goods are the chronic outcome of the inability (and/or unwillingness) of central planners to accurately gauge and plan for consumers’ demands for different products, without the guidance of competitively determined market prices.”
Now which one would you think will work better?
Not exactly a visionary is he?
In other words, our money is better spent on wars and military actions over fossil fuels so that we can continue to fuel the fleet with the same fuels we are warring over. Makes complete sense…to Republicans in the back pockets of the MIC and Big Oil.
way to go lamebrain….not collect your big oil check and let them drill more around here…. bum
Who are his (and Mike Caufman’s) owners? Grover Norquist and the Koch Brothers (Big Oil). Hmmm…..
Time to vote them out!
Oil, most ALL oil in the US and elsewhere will be used up eventually, possibly before the century is up. Long before that happens oil will go from $100 a barrel to $300, $500, or more. At that point it might cost more to sail a ship out of port than pay its crew for the month. An unaffordable Navy is an ineffective Navy.
He’s absolutely right!! The Chinese already dominate this technology and
are developing advanced military applications….why would we want to compete a losing battle with the Chinese??
Let’s stick with making a better microwave hamburger…..
Virtually all new technology has a government program that pushed it over the hump. Look at what the wasteful space program brought us. telemetry, teflon, better food preservation, seiconductors at smaller and smaller levels, new fabrics, heat shielding, um a host of other things that we use daily and think nothing of. too bad the government didn’t patent this or claim royalties, but dupont et al made a fortune of the investments.
Pharmacuetical research, also started in universities, eg government spending
So it seems right to me that the military, who is impacted more than anyone else be resource scarcity, should be researching alternative engergy sources BEFORE they become necessary and we find ourselves in a very bad place.
We needed a Lamborn type back in the mid 1800s when we switching from sail to steam. Wind was free, but we decided to pay for coal and oil to turn water into steam to propel ships against the wind.
What a waste of tax payer dollars steaming against the wind!
Maybe, tactical advantage isn’t a matter of election-year politics. But what do I know? The view isn’t as nice from outside the pocket of Big Oil.
[...] A month ago, Colorado Springs Congressman Doug Lamborn and other House Republicans asked the Secretary of the Navy not to “waste” money by investing in renewable energy re… On Tuesday, 18 Senate Democrats, including Colorado’s own Mark Udall, responded to Lamborn, [...]