Via SF Chronicle:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, and the chairman of the House Administration Committee sent a letter to the chief Administrative Officer of the house, asking him to prepare a report outlining the ways that energy can be conserved within the Capitol complex. The Democrats envision the Capitol as a “green beacon” for the planet.

Barbara Boxer has headed up a similar program on the Senate side, to improve the energy efficiency of the lighting in Senate offices.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Doug Catlin of the U.S. Green Building Council said of the efforts to address energy use in buildings that, in the case of the Capitol itself, date back two centuries.

“People look to their members of Congress to be leaders, to set an example,” said Catlin, head of the nonprofit council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program for existing buildings. The program is a rating system for the adoption of green materials and environmentally friendly operating practices in buildings.

Mr. Catlin outlined the ways that the building could be updated and retrofitted to reduce energy use:

— Place motion detectors in lights.

— Fine-tune heating and air-conditioning systems to use less often.

— Coat windows on the outside with ultraviolet-reducing film to reduce heat entering buildings and keep out harmful UV rays.

— Plant more trees nearby to shade the buildings and lower the inside temperature during the capital’s hot, humid summer.

— Place solar panels on the roofs.

— Clean the buildings during the day so lights can be off at night.

Walk the talk is a great motto to live by. I hope that these proposals become real change at the government level. Leading by example is something that the US Government should champion.