II
Calendar No. 534
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3870
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY 27 (legislative day, JULY 20), 1994
Received; read twice and placed on the calendar
AN ACT
To promote the research and development of environmental
technologies.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Environmental Technologies Act of 1994’’.
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for
this Act is as follows:
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 101. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 102. Findings.
Sec. 103. Purposes.
Sec. 104. Definitions.
TITLE II—POLICY COORDINATION AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS
Subtitle A—Policy Coordination and Program Planning
Sec. 201. Coordination of environmental technology research and development.
Sec. 202. Life-cycle assessments.
Sec. 203. Environmental technologies in ongoing programs.
Subtitle B—Environmental Technology Innovation Initiative
Sec. 211. Establishment and administration of initiative.
Sec. 212. Innovative environmental technology program.
Sec. 213. President’s total environmental quality award and the national envi-
ronmentally sound technology award.
Sec. 214. Incorporation of information on environmental technologies into exist-
ing networks.
Sec. 215. Use of Federal facilities for environmental technology demonstration.
Sec. 216. Study of factors affecting innovation in environmental technologies.
Sec. 217. Disclaimer.
Subtitle C—Other Research Activities
Sec. 221. Environmentally advanced engineering research.
TITLE III—PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS
Sec. 301. Performance measurements.
Sec. 302. Verification of environmental technologies.
Sec. 303. Use of certain environmental technologies by the Federal government.
TITLE IV—DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ENVIRONMENTAL
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Sec. 401. Environmental restoration and waste management technology devel-
opment.
Sec. 402. Metals recycling demonstration program.
Sec. 403. Funding and authorization.
Sec. 404. Coordination.
TITLE V—AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS
Sec. 501. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 502. Limitation on appropriations.
Sec. 503. Competition requirement for awards of financial assistance.
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SEC. 102. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Promoting a sound economy and maintain-
ing a healthy environment are among the urgent
public policy challenges of the United States.
(2) The research, development, and demonstra-
tion of environmental technologies will enhance the
economic standing of the United States and global
environmental security.
(3) Although better designs for products and
processes offer new opportunities for substantially
improved environmental performance in growing do-
mestic and international markets, current govern-
ment regulations and market barriers do not allow
these opportunities to be fully exploited.
(4) Although the Federal Government, research
institutes, universities, and industries are conducting
substantial basic environmental research and devel-
opment, environmental concerns must become a
more pervasive and central dimension of technology
research and development.
(5) The coordination of Federal, State, and
local activities for the research, development, and
demonstration of environmental technologies will
greatly enhance the effectiveness of environmental
policies of the United States.
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SEC. 103. PURPOSES.
It is the purpose of this Act—
(1) to improve, consistent with applicable provi-
sions of law, coordination and integration of environ-
mental technology research and development per-
formed by and across Federal agencies;
(2) to assist and catalyze efforts of private in-
dustry, universities, nonprofit research centers, and
Federal laboratories in the research, development,
and demonstration of cost-effective, energy-efficient,
and safe environmental technologies and, in the
process, to promote the competitiveness of United
States companies;
(3) to facilitate the dissemination of informa-
tion regarding innovations in environmental tech-
nologies;
(4) to promote the development of technical
performance measurements of environmentally sound
products; and
(5) to direct the study of policy changes that
will provide for the more efficient research, develop-
ment, and demonstration of environmental tech-
nologies.
SEC. 104. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this Act:
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(1) The term ‘‘Administrator’’ means the Ad-
ministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(2) The term ‘‘design-for-environment’’ means
the process of synthesis in which waste prevention
and the efficient management of materials during a
product’s life cycle are treated as design objectives,
in addition to conventional attributes such as cost,
performance, manufacturability, and safety.
(3) The term ‘‘environmental technology’’
means a cost-efficient technology that is primarily
intended to improve the quality of the environment
through pollution prevention, pollution monitoring,
pollution control, pollution remediation, reuse, recy-
cling, or disposal, or that is capable of cost-effec-
tively offering significant environmental benefits
when compared with a technology it replaces.
(4) The term ‘‘advanced precommercial environ-
mental technologies’’ means any environmental tech-
nology that enables the commercial potential of a
new product or process but requires a further invest-
ment in addition to, and comparable to, the assist-
ance provided under this Act to develop and market
application-specific commercial prototypes, products,
and processes.
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(5) The term ‘‘Federal laboratory’’ has the
meaning given the term ‘‘laboratory’’ in section
12(d)(2) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Inno-
vation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)(2)).
(6) The term ‘‘life-cycle assessment’’ means an
inventory of the resource use and waste generation
involved in developing a technology, including mate-
rials extraction, materials conversion, transportation,
energy use, end use, recycling, and disposal, and
their associated costs and environmental impacts.
(7) The term ‘‘small business concern’’ means
a United States company that is a small business
concern within the meaning given such term in the
Small Business Act (15 U.S.C 631 et seq.).
(8) The term ‘‘sustainable economic develop-
ment’’ means the integration of environmental and
economic development concerns leading to continu-
ous and long-term economic development with re-
duced pollution and the more efficient use of energy
and materials.
(9) The term ‘‘technology’’ means a product, a
manufacturing process, a system, a service, or any
other method by which individual or societal needs
are met through technical activities.