GREEN ENERGY EDUCATION ACT OF 2007

Mr. McCaul of Texas- Mr. Speaker, I want to first thank Mr. Lipinski and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their strong support of this bill, which I introduced in the last Congress; and I'm pleased to see it get to the House floor in this Congress.

The National Academies' Rising Above the Gathering Storm report echoed the call of many in the academic and business community for greater need to recruit and develop scientific and engineering talent to work on solving problems of national need.

Like many Members of Congress, I'm concerned about America's dependence on foreign sources of energy. Our reliance on imported energy only serves to increase our vulnerability to both external events and the actions of regimes that are, in many cases, openly hostile to the interests of the United States. One of the ways we can reduce the need for energy imports is to use our energy more efficiently.

Buildings consume more energy than any other sector of the economy, including industry and transportation. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, American buildings consume 39 percent of our Nation's primary energy and 70 percent of electricity. However, energy efficient building practices are not being fully utilized, in part because of a lack of awareness about energy efficient technologies and design practices among building professionals.

That is why I introduced the Green Energy Education Act. This legislation authorizes the Department of Energy to partner with the National Science Foundation to support graduate education and curriculum development to advance DOE's broad energy technology development mission. Working through NSF, DOE will help develop the next generation of engineers and architects to produce buildings incorporating the latest in energy efficient technologies.

In order to reduce the likelihood of duplicative and wasteful programs, this bill also allows the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation to combine their efforts to find workable solutions to the issues surrounding building efficiency that then can be transferred to the marketplace.

Specifically, H.R. 1716 will authorize DOE's Office of Science and applied energy technology programs to contribute funds to the NSF's successful Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program, which is already doing great work in this area.

This bill also authorizes the DOE to contribute to NSF's curriculum development activities in order to improve the ability of engineers and architects to design and construct more efficient and durable buildings.

I urge my colleagues to support this important step towards increasing America's energy independence.