[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 32 (Wednesday, February 27, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1267-S1268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              GREEN CHEMISTRY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACT

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I am proud to join my friend Senator 
Snowe and our colleagues Senator Pryor, Senator Collins, and Senator 
Kerry in introducing the Green Chemistry Research and Development Act. 
This legislation is a bipartisan effort to promote the efforts of some 
of the most brilliant minds in academia, government, and industry to 
both reduce the environmental impacts of common chemical processes and 
to foster the development of a new generation of environmentally 
responsible chemical products.
  My fellow cosponsors and I seek to help the chemical industry reduce 
its use and production of hazardous substances and the overall effect 
on the environment of the business of chemistry. As it was in the past 
when Senator Snowe and I previously introduced legislation to promote 
``Green Chemistry,'' this legislation is supported by the chemical, 
pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries and academic institutions 
because it is designed to hasten the attainment of a goal we all share: 
making the production of the chemical products we need in ways not 
detrimental to the environment using engineering processes that save 
both money and the planet. The products and engineering processes we 
believe will be developed will produce benefits across the entire 
economy.
  What we call ``green chemistry'' is nothing more than what every 
industry in the United States should strive to be. Chemical companies 
employing green chemistry techniques will challenge their best 
scientists, engineers, and product developers to make new products that 
are better suited to the task for which they are created than the 
products they will replace using state-of-the-art manufacturing that 
minimizes or completely eliminates both the use of environmentally 
unsustainable substances as inputs or results in environmentally 
unsustainable substances as byproducts. Our purpose in introducing this 
legislation is to make certain that the nascent green technology 
revolution does not bypass the chemical industry by providing 
significant and ongoing support for green chemistry research, 
development, demonstration, education, and technology transfer.
  When enacted, the Green Chemistry Research and Development Act will 
create a Federal Interagency Working Group--made up of representatives 
from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy, and the 
Environmental Protection Agency--to fund and oversee research through 
merit-based grants to universities, industry, and nonprofit 
organizations to promote the development and adoption of green 
chemistry processes and products. Further, the Interagency Working 
Group will help expand education, training in, and the flow of 
information about sustainable chemical engineering, including 
development of green chemistry curricula for undergraduate and graduate 
students. Finally, Federal resources in funding and technical expertise 
will seek to identify barriers to the commercialization of the products 
of a rejuvenated, more environmentally responsible domestic chemical 
industry.
  These are challenging times for the domestic chemical industry. High

[[Page S1268]]

prices for necessary feedstocks and transportation to customers, along 
with all the other hurdles that must be overcome in the global economy, 
have put this industry, which began here and which supplied vital 
products to customers the world over, at risk of being another industry 
the United States could lose to our foreign trading competitors. 
However, this industry meets challenges every day. This legislation 
will allow American chemical companies to once again demonstrate a 
passion for excellence, safety, and innovation that will be a source of 
envy around the world and create a generation's worth of good-paying 
jobs that States like West Virginia can build an economy around.
  Mr. President, I call on my colleagues to take up and pass the Green 
Chemistry Research and Development Act.

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