Greening the Capitol:The House (but not the Senate) Cleans up its Act
by Jenifer Joy Madden Cafeteria stations feature fresh-made wraps and salads, hormone-free burgers and mounds of fruit arrayed on bamboo mats. Food is served on compostable sugar cane plates and beverages in cornstarch cups. Receptacles invite easy waste separation. Welcome to the Longworth House Office Building Café in Washington, D.C. The food service makeover is a tip-off to how fast things are changing in one branch of the U.S. legislature. Just over a year ago-March 1, 2007-newly elected Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued her edict: the House of Representatives must become carbon neutral by the end of this year and cut its carbon footprint in half within a decade. The Speaker’s first order of business was to lure Dan Beard out of semi-retirement to act as Greening Czar. Beard previously held top jobs in the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, the House Appropriations and Natural Resources Committee and the National Audubon Society. On arrival, Beard confronted the status quo. In 2006, the House was responsible for 91,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to the output of 17,200 cars. Heating and air conditioning came from an ancient carbon-belching coal-fueled plant, the third largest source of air pollution in the District of […]