House Passes Congressman McCaul's Green Energy Education Act
House Passes Congressman McCaul’s
Green Energy Education ActAUSTIN – Congressman Michael McCaul’s (R-TX 10) "Green Energy Education Act" passed the U.S. House by a 411-6 vote Wednesday.
The Green Energy Education Act will "help develop the next generation of engineers and architects to produce buildings incorporating the latest in energy efficient technologies," said Rep. McCaul, speaking before the vote on the House floor. Please click here to view the speech in its entirety.
The return is both financial and environmental. The increased costs of green building design pays for itself and reduces long term costs by reducing energy consumption. Additionally, the green construction creates more conducive working and learning environments with better lighting, ventilation and temperature controls. The result is decreased illness, absences and higher productivity.
The Green Energy Education Act will:
- Authorize the DOE Office of Science and Applied Energy Technology Programs to contribute funds to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) successful Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program.
- Authorize DOE high performance building technology programs to contribute to NSF’s curriculum development activities with the goal of improving the ability of engineers and architects to design and construct more efficient and durable buildings.
- Encourage cooperation between research agencies to avoid the unnecessary and wasteful duplication of programs.
Experience has shown that having energy efficiency as a design goal at the start of a project can drastically reduce the cost of meeting energy efficiency targets, and can often do so while enhancing or only minimally impacting aesthetic values.
Congressman McCaul serves on the House Committee on Science and Technology. A similar bill passed the House unanimously in the 110th Congress, but the Senate did not vote on it.