National Defense Authorization Act For 2015 Moves Forward In Senate

On December 12, 2014, the Senate passed a House amendment to the Carl Levin
and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2015 (NDAA FY15). The final version of the NDAA FY15
places restrictions on how the military is able to acquire biofuels by
prohibiting funding from being used for bulk purchase of drop-in biofuels where
the fully burdened cost of the biofuels is not cost competitive with the fully
burdened cost of available traditional fuels. The bill defines a fully burdened
cost as “the commodity price of the fuel plus the total cost of all
personnel and assets required to move and, when necessary, protect the fuel
from the point at which the fuel is received from the commercial supplier to
the point of use.”

In addition, the NDAA FY15 requires the Secretary of Defense, or
the Secretary of the relevant military department, to submit a business case
analysis to the Congressional defense committees at least 30 days before
entering contracts for the “planning, design, refurbishment, or
construction of a biofuels refinery, or of any other facility or infrastructure
used to refine biofuels.” The Congressional Budget Office
has completed a review of the effect that the bill would have on direct
spending and revenue and has determined that NDAA FY15 would result in a
decrease in direct spending by $1.9 billion from 2015 to 2024.