Streamlining Energy Efficiency for Schools Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member; the chairman; and the sponsor of this bill, Mr. Cartwright, in persistent advocacy.

What Mr. Cartwright said really makes sense. It is pretty bad, the condition of many of our schools throughout the country. About 43 percent are in substandard condition. It has a real impact on learning, but it also has an impact on expense. It means that kids are in cold and drafty schools or it is too hot; it is one or the other.

Energy efficiency programs can make a huge difference, and there are some that are available.

As Mr. Cartwright said, the teachers and the principals want to focus on instruction and taking care of the kids. They don't have time to manage and investigate what are all of the programs out there that may allow them to rehab their schools.

This allows the Secretary to essentially provide a blueprint so that, whether you are in a small town like Norwich, Vermont, where I am from, where we have got a population of about 3,000, or you are in an urban district in the middle of Chicago, you are going to be able to get the information you need without absorbing a lot of staff time.

And then, by the way, kids are getting involved in this question of climate change. This is a big deal because, at our schools and our high schools, there is a lot of leadership that is saying we have got an obligation to protect our planet. What is going to happen when we embrace energy efficiency on a large scale but start locally is that it is going to reduce carbon emissions.

In fact, when we passed the Waxman-Markey bill in the House--it didn't get through the Senate--where the goal was 80 percent carbon reductions by 2050, 40 percent of those carbon reductions were coming from energy efficiency.

It is what Mr. Tonko says. It is our fuel of choice. It is the cheapest way to reduce carbon emissions.

The other thing is, every time you are doing energy efficiency, it means local tradesmen and -women are doing the work. So it is those kids who are going to have a warmer or a cooler school, and it is their moms and dads who are going to be doing the work to make that happen. So this really makes a lot of sense.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the sponsor of this legislation and leadership on the committee for their work in bringing it forward.

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