“Many of these [biobased materials] are substitutes for products based on nonrenewable natural resources like oil and natural gas, so when we have substitutes, it supports the president's initiatives and . . . national interests to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy [and make] our nation more secure,” he said Sept. 12 at the Pentagon, during an event to bring manufacturers of biobased products and defense officials together.

“Biobased products are . . . an essential part of our strategic approach to national security,” he added.

In his January State of the Union address, President Bush said the United States is “addicted to oil,” and called for “more reliable alternative energy sources.”

The event this week follows on the heels of an Aug. 17 memo from Defense Department acquisition chief Kenneth Krieg that encourages DOD leaders to promote the purchase of biobased products, as the Pentagon prepares to implement a federal law that is expected to change the way the armed services buy items ranging from hand sanitizers to fuel additives.

Biobased products utilize plant, animal and marine or forestry materials, according to DOD's Green Procurement Program Strategy, a 2004 document that describes Pentagon policy on acquiring environmentally friendly products.

Sens. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), along with Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, also spoke at the Pentagon event, dubbed “Biobased: Enhancing DOD's Mission, Protecting the Environment.”

Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed England's national security concerns.

“Our future security will not only depend upon the Pentagon's ability to maintain a strong and effective military, but also upon the ability of our nation to blunt the oil weapon by developing new biobased feed stocks to convert into fuels . . . chemicals, composites and other essential products,” Lugar said. Indiana is a leading producer of soybeans, which is used to make various biobased products.

For his part, Harkin urged DOD, the largest purchaser in the federal government, to “buy biobased” to help support the American economy.

The event and the Krieg memo were intended to help educate officials on the availability of biobased materials and help prepare DOD for the implementation of a 2002 law that would give procurement preference to such products over fossil-fuel based options, a defense source told Inside the Pentagon Sept. 13.

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act directs all federal agencies to establish procurement preference programs for Agriculture Department-designated biobased products. The law exempts motor vehicle fuels and electricity from biobased procurement.

After an item is certified by Agriculture, federal agencies must purchase the biobased version if item costs exceed $10,000, and it is reasonably available and priced as well as meets required performance standards.

Presently, only six item categories have been designated by Agriculture's Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program, which was established under the 2002 law.

The items include mobile equipment hydraulic fluids; urethane roof coatings; water tank coatings; diesel fuel additives; penetrating lubricants and bedding; and linens and towels, according to the program's Web site.

Last month, the department published two Federal Register notices opening a 60-day comment period on 20 more categories that could be added to the agency list. Up to 50 more such groupings could be put into the clearance process by the end of the year, Johanns said during this week's event.

The proposed items include adhesive removers, composite panels, biodegradable containers, insulating foam, metalworking fluids, grease removers and dust suppressants, according to an Aug. 17 Agriculture statement.

“We all associate gasoline and heating oil with fossil fuels, but our society is depending on these materials at an even more basic level,” Johanns said. “We use them to create everything from plastics to cleaning solutions . . . so reducing America's dependence on fossil fuels is really a necessity.”

The six categories, which were designated earlier this year, will become part of DOD and other federal agency procurement policy when guidance on how to implement the law is released, the defense source told ITP.

DOD officials have submitted comments on implementation to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, which is crafting a rule on the matter, the source said.

Once the implementation guidelines are announced, DOD and other agencies will have to establish biobased procurement preference programs, craft an agency-wide “promotion” campaign and submit an annual review to Congress on the effort's progress, according to the law.

Creating effective methods of monitoring purchases of biobased products for reporting purposes is an issue the Agriculture Department is tackling, Marvin Duncan, a senior agriculture economist with the department, told ITP last week.

The Pentagon is interested in moving forward with increasing procurement of biobased products by educating officials on options in the market before the law is implemented, the defense source said.

“Pending the finalization of [Agriculture Department] implementing guidance, DOD activities are encouraged to purchase and use biobased alternative products and to initiate projects [that] further demonstrate the value and utility of these materials in DOD applications,” Krieg wrote in the Aug. 17 memo.

The memo also urged DOD officials to consider using biodegradable materials for food packaging and wood products that “originate from sustainably managed forest.”

Under the department's Green Procurement Program policy, DOD spending on environmentally friendly products has increased from $57 million to $100 million in the last four years, Eileen Lainez, a department spokewoman, told ITP Sept. 13.

The policy applies to “all acquisitions, from major systems to individual unit supply and service requisitions,” she added.

When implementation guidance on the 2002 law is approved, DOD may consider adding an appendix to the Green Procurement Program Strategy as a way to incorporate any changes the law may have on the document, according to defense officials.