[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4990 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4990

   To provide for the establishment by the Secretary of Energy of a 
 program of Federal support for local governments that establish Clean 
                           Energy Bond Acts.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 2006

  Mr. Israel introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide for the establishment by the Secretary of Energy of a 
 program of Federal support for local governments that establish Clean 
                           Energy Bond Acts.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Local Clean Energy Initiative Act of 
2006''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Energy shall establish a program 
to provide to local governments that establish a Clean Energy Bond Act 
grants in an amount up to 20 percent of the costs of implementing clean 
energy projects funded by the Clean Energy Bond Act.
    (b) Preference.--In awarding grants under the program established 
under subsection (a), the Secretary shall give preference to local 
governments that will be engaging in the full range of clean energy 
projects, and to those who can demonstrate a prior commitment to 
environmental conservation.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Energy 
$10,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2007 through 2011 to carry out 
this Act.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``alternative transportation fuel'' means 
        methanol, denatured ethanol, and other alcohols; mixtures 
        containing 85 percent or more by volume of methanol, denatured 
        ethanol, and other alcohols with gasoline or other fuels; 
        natural gas; liquified petroleum gas; hydrogen; coal-derived 
        liquid fuels; fuels (other than alcohol) derived from 
        biological materials (including neat biodiesel); and 
        electricity (including electricity from solar energy);
            (2) the term ``Clean Energy Bond Act'' means a statute 
        authorizing a local government to issue bonds for the purpose 
        of funding clean energy projects;
            (3) the term ``clean energy project'' means--
                    (A) an energy conservation measure;
                    (B) a project to update or convert municipal 
                buildings to generate power from a renewable energy 
                source; and
                    (C) a project to replace automobiles owned by the 
                local government with hybrid vehicles or vehicles that 
                run on alternative transportation fuel;
            (4) the term ``energy conservation measure'' means a 
        measure that is applied to an existing municipal building that 
        improves energy efficiency and is life cycle cost effective and 
        that involves energy conservation, cogeneration facilities, 
        renewable energy sources, improvements in operation and 
        maintenance efficiencies, or retrofit activities; and
            (5) the term ``renewable energy source'' means solar heat, 
        solar light, wind, geothermal energy, and biomass, except for--
                    (A) heat from the burning of municipal solid waste; 
                or
                    (B) heat from a dry steam geothermal reservoir 
                which--
                            (i) has no mobile liquid in its natural 
                        state;
                            (ii) is a fluid composed of at least 95 
                        percent water vapor; and
                            (iii) has an enthalpy for the total 
                        produced fluid greater than or equal to 2.791 
                        megajoules per kilogram (1200 British thermal 
                        units per pound).
                                 <all>