Yesterday the U.S. Senate approved another pro-biofuels amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). By a vote of 54 to 41, the Senate approved an amendment by Senator Kay Hagan which would allow the Department of Defense to invest in biorefineries.
Without Senator Hagan’s amendment, the Senate bill would have included language to prohibit the Department of Defense from executing the Memorandum of Understanding between the Navy, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy which, using the Defense Production Act, creates a public-private partnership for investing in cost competitive, advanced biofuels production. The Hagan amendment will allow the Pentagon to continue their plans to support commercialization of domestic biofuels in order to relieve our military of reliance on unstable nations for fuel.
There is still work to be done and the NDAA must make it through House and Senate negotiations for a final bill, but this is an important step.
ABO would like to thank everybody in the algae community, and the biofuels industry as a whole for their support for this amendment. Congratulations on this latest success!