In a Washington Times column, Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA) blasted State Department priorities on an issue we first raised in an October 2 post titled, Embassies Facing Security Cuts Waste Money on Chevy Volts.” From Kelly’s column:
In fact, at a May 10 gala held at the U.S. embassy in Vienna, the ambassador showcased his new Volts and other green investments as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to “climate change solutions.”
The event posting on the embassy website read: “Celebrating the Greening of the Embassy.”
While the embassy in Vienna was going green, the consulate in Benghazi was getting bombed, and little was done to stop it.
We cited a State Department contract for a Volt recharger that cost $108,000. Kelly figures that this sum could have bought a lot of additional security in Benghazi:
According to an employment contract recovered at the Benghazi compound by the Washington Post shortly after the September attacks, those unarmed Libyan contractors were making roughly $4 dollars an hour.
If that was indeed the case, the State Department, using the funds provided to the U.S. embassy in Austria for an electric vehicle charger, could have provided Ambassador Stevens with three additional guards, 24 hours a day, for 365 days, with some money left over.
Drudge linked to both my original post and Kelly’s column. Kelly, the owner of GM dealership, has sponsored legislation to end the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases.