A Few Bills to Watch

On February 10, Rep. Michael McCaul [R-TX] introduced H.R. 957: Green Energy Education Act of 2009.  The Congressional Research Service offers the following summary:

Green Energy Education Act of 2009 - Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to contribute energy research and development funds to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program to support graduate education related to such energy projects.

Authorizes the Secretary to contribute funds for advanced energy technology research and development for high performance buildings to the NSF for curriculum development to improve undergraduate or graduate interdisciplinary engineering and architecture education related to the design and construction of such buildings.

 

This measure is still in the first stage of the legislative process; it has been introduced, and referred to the Committee on Science and Technology.   Interestingly, McCaul introduced the very same bill in 2007.  The bill passed the House with no opposition, but was never voted on in the Senate.  Will things be different this time?

 

There are several pieces of introduced legislation that relate to climate science, all of which will be tracked as they progress through the process.

H.R. 327: National Hurricane Research Initiative Act of 2009

H.R. 14: Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009

S. 173: Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009

H.R. 300: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Act

These bills have been introduced (the Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, notably, in both the House and the Senate), but are still in preliminary stages.  Their fate may be instructive about this administration’s relationship with climate science.

An interesting counter-point:  H.R. 554: National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009 , which essentially requires reporting ongoing projects to the public (assumedly in the interest of accountability) passed the House quickly, and awaits consideration by the Senate.