Lawmakers Focus on 'Greening' the Capitol
As Congress considers an energy bill, lawmakers plan a "greening" of the Capitol, aiming to make it a model of sustainability.
They're considering fluorescent lights, recycled paper, electricity from renewable sources, new heating and cooling, and offsets for their plane trips.
Meanwhile, the building gets its energy from a smoke-belching coal plant on Capitol Street.
9(MDAyNzUwMDI2MDEyNTA3MTU5NzcyNTQyNA004))
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
While Congress debates a wide-ranging bill to set national energy policy, lawmakers are also taking steps to put their own house in order, so to speak. Their new Green the Capitol plan aims to cut energy use by the House of Representatives in half over 10 years. It also would make the House carbon-neutral by the end of next year.
But NPR's Brian Naylor reports there's a big, black smudge on those goals.
BRIAN NAYLOR: Under a cloudless blue sky buffeted by a warm first-day-of-summer breeze, lawmakers gathered at the foot of the Capitol steps to announce their plans to make, as one put it, a 19th-century building a 21st-century example.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has taken the lead on the Green the Capitol initiative explained it this way.
Representative NANCY PELOSI (Democrat, California; Speaker of the House): Today, we say that the Capitol will not only be just a shining example of our democracy, but a symbol of our commitment to the future.
NAYLOR: The example Congress hopes to set includes everything from changing thousands of light fixtures to installing hybrid fuel pumps for the Capitol's fleet of cars to buying 15 percent of the House's electricity needs from renewable resources. It's a big job.
Mr. FRED SHERLING(ph) (Executive Director, Office of Sustainability, House of Representatives): We're in the steam entrance facility into the Ford House Office Building.
NAYLOR: Fred Sherling is the executive director of the House's Office of Sustainability. He is showing me around the basement room in the Ford Building. It's filled with big boilers and a row of thick steam pipes with valves the size of your car's steering wheel. It's all very industrial-age-looking and very inefficient.
Mr. SHERLING: Probably the best way to think about it is, is you have this huge fire hose coming in from the steam plant. But once it gets to the building, you only - you're up trying to feed things like radiators. And you only need a garden hose amount of steam. So basically, you have - all of the energy is lost in that steam reduction.
NAYLOR: Officials pledge to retrofit all these and to make the House carbon-neutral by the end of next year. They'll do this in part by buying carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. But these noble intentions can't obscure one dirty fact.
I'm about four blocks from the Capitol building next to a residential neighborhood and behind me is the Capitol Power Plant. One congressman has called it the armpit of Washington. It produces not power but hot air - insert your own joke here - steam actually, to heat the Capitol complex. Last year, more than 17,000 tons of coal were burned here.
Mr. DAN BEARD (Chief Administrative Officer, U.S. House of Representative): The Capitol Power Plant is an eyesore. Frankly, I think it's an embarrassment. And I think we have to make dramatic changes in the operation of the power plant.
NAYLOR: Dan Beard is the chief administrative officer of the House. He said the House will make sure that the part of the power plant it controls uses cleaner natural gas rather than coal. But the House can only do so much on its own. That's because the Senate has joint control of the facility, and several powerful Senate leaders are from big coal-producing states, and they want to keep the coal behind the power plant piled high.
Among them is the assistant majority leader Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Senator DICK DURBIN (Democrat, Illinois): You have to talk about some power source. What is it going to be? Natural Gas? I mean, you're dealing with CO2 in that situation as well. So I'm open to suggestions. I mean, I think what we need to have is a plant that really sets a national example.
NAYLOR: Durbin suggests carbon capture and storage, a technology that removes CO2 from the atmosphere. But that's down the road, and as long as the power plant continues to produce tons of greenhouse gases, the goal of a truly green Capitol remains distant too.
Brian Naylor, NPR News, The Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
