Brad Miller: “I originally introduced as an amendment to the Energy Bill, what is now section 917 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.…”

“I originally introduced as an amendment to the Energy Bill, what is now section 917 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Then Chairman Boehlert accepted that amendment in the 108th, and then made it part of the base bill the next time that it came through this committee in the 109th. H.R. 85 makes improving changes to section 917, to make it an even more effective program. There has never been a partisan divide over this program. This committee passed the language in this bill as part of a broader energy bill that Mrs. Biggert introduced in the last Congress. I thank the Chairman for working to get this bill to the House floor and thank Mrs. Biggert for continuing to work with me on the issue of energy technology transfer. The purpose of the program is to encourage the use in the real world of energy efficiency technologies that have been developed with, often, federally funded research, the Department of Energy, but that has sat unused on the shelf. Using those energy efficiency technologies offers the promise of immediate help with our problems, with our energy needs, our dependency, and we should be using every effort to try to make ourselves more energy independent. This bill would extend those ways of delivering energy conservation and efficiency programs to include cooperative extension services, which is a definite improvement, and important, that these energy efficiency technologies make their way into rural America.”