Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG’s environmental work.
Washington, DC—In testimony today before a
subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, U.S. PIRG Federal
Global Warming Program Director, Emily Figdor, will praise Chairman Waxman for
legislation that would require the federal government to be carbon neutral by 2050.
“This
bill would catapult the U.S.
government, for too long a laggard in solving global warming, to being a leader
and setting the example,” Figdor will tell the subcommittee this afternoon.
The
Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement’s legislative
hearing is on the Carbon-Neutral Government Act, a bill intended to be included
in House Speaker Pelosi’s July 4th energy independence and global
warming package to be considered on the floor this summer.
The
federal government is the single largest energy consumer in the United States
and a leading contributor to global warming emissions. The bill would freeze global warming
emissions from federal agencies at 2010 levels and reduce them steadily each
year through 2050, at which point the federal government would be carbon
neutral. The bill backs up its
commitment to carbon neutrality with a series of sound policy steps that would
improve the energy efficiency of federal operations and spur markets for
innovative energy efficient and renewable energy technologies, notes Figdor.
The
hearing is today at 2 pm in Rayburn 2154.
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U.S. PIRG is the federation of state
Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan
public interest advocacy organizations.
