United States Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, announced today that she will be introducing legislation to accelerate the effort to make the thousands of Federal government buildings managed by the General Services Administration models of energy efficiency, starting with lighting systems. The GSA owns or leases over 340 million square feet of space in nearly 9000 buildings located in every state. Senator Boxer raised this proposal with James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, in a meeting late last week.

"The challenge of global warming demands that we increase the energy efficiency of every sector of our economy. My legislation will accelerate the process of making federal government buildings a model for energy efficiency. I am hopeful that this may be an area of common ground with the administration"

Senator Boxer anticipates introducing legislation in the coming weeks.

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