Sec. 3. Sense of Congress
380 words·~2 min read·
/bill/116/hr/7827/ih/section-3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that— we must help accelerate our transition to a clean-energy economy by significantly increasing investments in Federal research, development, and demonstration that will foster needed advancements in clean energy and deep decarbonization across the economy; increased research, development, and demonstration funding for the noted programs is not sufficient on its own to address the climate crisis, but it is an essential step that must be coupled with a suite of climate polices and investments to maximize adoption of cleaner processes and technologies; in order to maximize the best use of this funding increase, the Department of Energy should use resources in a targeted fashion to address climate change, such as by participating in strategic goal setting and engaging broadly with stakeholders, including industries, utilities, labor unions, and impacted communities, especially environmental justice communities; increased Federal investments in energy research must be used to create a more just energy system that fairly distributes clean energy benefits, facilitates more representative and inclusive energy decision making, and addresses the disproportionate burdens historically faced by low-income communities and communities of color; it is important for these programs to maintain a comprehensive approach to innovation that includes early-, mid-, and late-stage research, development, and market transformation activities; and a modernization of Department of Energy clean energy programs would enable even greater progress to help address the climate crisis, including— an update to the Department of Energy’s mission to explicitly include mitigating climate change and increasing climate resilience would reduce existing barriers to climate-related efforts and allow the Department of Energy to specifically focus resources on emissions-reducing strategies; expanded authorization to conduct workforce development, quality job creation, and social equity programs with a priority focus on communities of color, Tribal communities, low-income communities, deindustrialized communities, and communities disproportionally impacted by climate change, would better equip the applied energy offices to address these issues that will be key to mitigating climate change; increased emphasis and funding for demonstration and deployment programs would increase the Department of Energy’s ability to get innovative, clean technologies into the market and ensure that our investments translate into domestic manufacturing and good jobs; and elevate and target more resources toward the Department of Energy’s work to address difficult-to-decarbonize sectors, such as transportation, building, and industrial sectors.