$350M for DoD energy in stimulus bill - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

$350M for DoD energy in stimulus bill

Amid the $825 billion that the U.S. Congress proposes to spend to resuscitate the U.S. economy, there’s a $350 million sliver in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the U.S. military to conduct research into renewable energy.

Details of the enormous spending plan were released Thursday, including a section of the bill that allocates money to the three military services and the Defense Department as a whole for use in research and development in energy generation, transmission, regulation, use and storage for military installations, vehicles and equipment.

Each service would receive $87.5 million, and the Defense Department as a whole would get $87.5 million.

The proposed legislation does not list specific projects on which the money is to be spent. Rather, “it looks like it is seed money for better ideas,” defense budget analyst Christopher Hellman said.

A summary of the legislation says the money is intended for research into “renewable energy to power weapons systems and military bases.”

The Recovery and Reinvestment bill allocates more than $50 billion for clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives that range from modernizing the nation’s electricity grid to weatherizing low-income homes.

It also proposes spending $3.75 billion on new military medical facilities; $2.1 billion on improvements to military installations; and $1.3 billion on housing for troops.

Pouring money into those projects and others — ranging from expanding broadband to building highways and bridges — is intended to reverse rising unemployment and the declining U.S. economy.