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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 3540

To coordinate the life-cycle assessment activities and resources of the Federal

Government relating to environmental technologies.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NOVEMBER 18, 1993

Mrs. MORELLA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

A BILL

To coordinate the life-cycle assessment activities and resources of the Federal Government relating to environmental technologies.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENTS.

4 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following:

5 (1) Life-cycle assessments have much potential

6 for identifying opportunities for achieving more envi7 ronmentally sound products, processes, and services

8 and enhanced industrial efficiency.

9 (2) Methods of life-cycle assessment are

10 underused in both the public and private sectors,
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1 particularly as applied to sustainable economic devel2 opment.

3 (3) The data necessary for meaningful life-cycle

4 assessment are often difficult to acquire, and no sys5 tem exists to make such data readily available to

6 public and private groups.

7 (b) LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT COORDINATION.—

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of

9 Science and Technology Policy, as part of activities

10 to coordinate environmental technology research, de11 velopment, and adoption, shall coordinate Federal

12 activities and resources that are applied to life-cycle

13 assessment in order to maximize the contribution of

14 life-cycle assessments to sustainable economic devel15 opment.

16 (2) IMPLEMENTATION.—In carrying out this

17 subsection, the Director of the Office of Science and

18 Technology Policy shall—

19 (A) ensure that the life-cycle assessment

20 resources of each Federal agency are developed

21 and disseminated in a coordinated fashion, par22 titioning agency responsibilities, where appro23 priate;
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1 (B) coordinate with State and local govern2 ments developing life-cycle assessment re3 sources; and

4 (C) consider the life-cycle assessment capa5 bilities of the private sector.

6 (3) OTHER ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out this

7 subsection, the Director of the Office of Science and

8 Technology Policy shall also encourage appropriate

9 Federal agencies—

10 (A) to collect, develop, and disseminate in11 formation regarding analytic methods and, as

12 required, to develop such methods, that will sig13 nificantly enhance the ability of United States

14 companies and other organizations to evaluate

15 materials extraction, transportation, conversion,

16 end use, recycling, and disposal, and their asso17 ciated costs and environmental impacts;

18 (B) to utilize, to the fullest extent prac19 ticable, existing networks and supporting

20 databases providing ready access to

21 nonproprietary information that will facilitate

22 the use of life-cycle assessments; and

23 (C) to sponsor demonstrations for public

24 policy and business decisionmakers of the effec-
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1 tive use of the database and methodologies de2 scribed in this section.

3 (c) ANNUAL REVIEW.—The Director of the Office of

4 Science and Technology Policy shall annually submit to

5 the Congress a report containing an evaluation of the life6 cycle assessment activities of the Federal Government.

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

8 For the purposes of this Act:

9 (1) The term ‘‘environmental technology’’

10 means—

11 (A) a technology that is primarily intended

12 to improve the quality of the environment

13 through pollution reduction or remediation;

14 (B) a product, manufacturing process, or

15 service that is capable of cost-effectively replac16 ing the functions of an existing product, proc17 ess, or service, and as compared with the prod18 uct, process, or service it replaces, significantly

19 reducing overall pollution or significantly im20 proving the efficiency of energy or materials

21 use; or

22 (C) a technology within the meaning of

23 subparagraphs (A) and (B).

24 (2) The term ‘‘life-cycle assessment’’ means the

25 assessment of the complete systems involved in con-
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1 verting resources to products, including resource ex2 traction, materials conversion, energy use, end use,

3 recycling, and disposal, and their associated costs.

4 (3) The term ‘‘sustainable economic develop5 ment’’ means the integration of environmental and

6 economic development concerns leading to long-term

7 economic development with reduced pollution and

8 the more efficient use of energy and materials.

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