Washington, DC – Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of twin climate and energy panels in the House, today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson asking for information on the EPA’s plans to generate clean, renewable energy on Brownfield sites.

“Brownfield sites can potentially provide a win-win, helping to re-power America and create jobs while revitalizing underutilized lands,” said Markey. “Many of these sites may be good candidates for solar, wind, or biomass energy production facilities. While we still have a long way to go towards cleaning up the decades of abuse sustained by our nation’s lands, I will work aggressively here in Congress to ensure that these sites will no longer be part of the problem, but will be part of our clean energy solution.”

There are an estimated 15 million acres of potentially contaminated land in America. In addition, less than 3% of the nation’s electricity is currently produced by renewable energy. The EPA has completed a mapping analysis, undertaken in conjunction with the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), that has yielded an inventory of over four thousand EPA-tracked Brownfield sites that might be good candidates for solar, wind, or biomass energy production facilities. Unlike undeveloped public lands, many Brownfield sites already have access to existing transmission capacity and other critical infrastructure that would be necessary for them to quickly meet the growing national demand for renewable energy.
 
Markey sent Administrator Jackson a list of questions on the feasibility of siting renewable energy projects on these lands.

A full text of Markey’s letter is available here.

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