[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 55 (Monday, May 2, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 21, 2005

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 6) to ensure 
     jobs for our future with secure, affordable, and reliable 
     energy:

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I rise to explain the purpose 
of Section 924(c) of this bill, Standardization Report and Program, 
which originated as my amendment and was approved by the Committee on 
Science.
  The purpose of the amendment is to transfer important knowledge 
related to energy conservation from the government to the private 
sector. The Department of Energy and other agencies involved in 
building research, development, and construction have acquired a wealth 
of knowledge on high performance buildings. These are buildings that 
are optimized over their life for energy conservation and other 
important values such as security and environmental quality. DOE and 
other agencies have worked with a government-chartered non-profit 
organization, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), to 
accumulate this knowledge on the Whole Building Design Guide website. 
In turn, these agencies require their contractors to use the 
information in the design, construction, operation, and upgrading of 
federal buildings.
  The private sector construction industry can benefit greatly from 
this information but the companies involved are often too small to use 
the information in its current form. Therefore, in my amendment I have 
called on NIBS, under a DOE contract, to work with voluntary consensus 
standards organizations and other appropriate industry groups to 
examine voluntary consensus standards as a whole to see which ones need 
to be upgraded to take into account whole building values contained on 
the website on a building life cycle basis such as energy efficiency, 
environmental quality, sustainability, safety and security, and 
accessibility.
  A goal is to look forward ten to twenty years and design buildings so 
that they can be retrofitted easily to remain state of the art 
structures. Another goal is to think through what standards are now in 
use and to work with the developers of those standards so that an easy-
to-use set of procedures and standards can be put in place both for 
construction and for renovation. Once the study is complete, hopefully 
no longer than a year and a half from the date of enactment, the 
section directs the Secretary, in cooperation with NIBS as appropriate, 
to establish a program of technical assistance and grants to aid the 
affected standards development organizations and other appropriate 
industry groups in bringing to fruition the user friendly system this 
section envisions.

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