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Hey all. Please take a minute to check this out.
If they're looking for input (see bottom of article), let's flood them with support / advice / examples / whatever might help them actually enact this. It certainly can't hurt. There is a strong automotive/Michigan economy-specific motivation for doing so too. I can't help but think part of the reason the Big 3 won't mass produce fuel-efficient vehicles, esp. plug-in electric hybrids, is the real or perceived notion that 'there is no viable market' to warrant a large scale production ramp up for such vehicles. This could be the hard proof they need. Probably not. But again, it can't hurt.
Please check out (and feel free to borrow from) my cheesy form letter below the copyright line at the end of the article. Then send an email to the address found in the article's last sentence.
Thanks!
Bob Mabbitt
http://ehscenter.bna.com/pic2/ehs.nsf/id/BNAP-7AUGJN?OpenDocument
Government Proposes Policy Letter On Acquiring 'Green' Products, Services
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy Dec. 28 proposed new “green purchasing policies and affirmative procurement programs” for all government contracting mechanisms and acquisition strategies to protect the environment and conserve natural resources and energy through contracting (72 Fed. Reg. 73,904).
The letter would require agencies to give preference to green products and services, including alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles; bio-based products; Energy Star and Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP)-designated products; electronics registered on the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool; low- or non-toxic hazardous chemicals or products; non-ozone depleting substances; recycled content and/or remanufactured products; renewable energy; and water-efficient products.
“Agency acquisition policies and programs shall enhance and, where appropriate, mandate the purchase and use of green products and services covered in this policy letter,” OFPP Administrator Paul Denett says in the proposed letter.
The policies would implement a Jan. 26, 2007, executive order (Exec. Order No. 13,423) directing agencies to strengthen the management of environmental, transportation, and energy-related activities, as well as various environmental and energy policy statutes. The letter would supersede OFPP Policy Letter 92-4, “Procurement of Environmentally-Sound and Energy-Efficient Products and Services,” dated Nov. 2, 1992.
The proposed policies would apply to all acquisition and contracting mechanisms, including service contracts, purchases made using government purchase cards and fleet cards, and purchases valued at less than the micropurchase threshold.
Green Affirmative Purchasing Program.
Additionally, OFPP would require that each federal agency develop and implement a comprehensive affirmative procurement plan for the acquisition of green products and services, also to be referred to as a “green procurement plan.”
At a minimum, the plan would be required to:
• state a preference for the acquisition of green products and services, and require the flow of this preference down to all agency contractors and subcontractors;
• explain the green acquisition roles and responsibilities of contracting officials, program managers, product specifiers, purchase card holders, and program administrators;
• promote the acquisition of green products and services internally within the agency and externally to source providers and other government agencies, including agencies at the state and local levels; and
• provide annual compliance monitoring, corrective action, and/or auditing of the agency green procurement plan.
Further, agency green plans should address:
• the development and use of templates for incorporating green purchasing requirements into solicitations and contracts;
• the use of government E-procurement tools, such as FedBizOpps.com, to publicize green acquisition requirements; and
• the use of past performance evaluations of contractor adherence to green acquisition priorities.
Green Acquisitions, Socioeconomic Programs.
Under the policy letter, agencies would be directed to first determine their specific performance requirements for products and services and, if they determine that a green product or service can meet those requirements, to give first consideration to mandatory and preferred sources in obtaining such green products or services.
Socioeconomic programs administered by nonprofit agencies employing people who are blind or disabled, namely the AbilityOne program under the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act and the Federal Prison Industries' UNICOR program, are mandatory sources in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation Subparts 8.6 and 8.7.
Small businesses, including small disadvantaged, women-owned, Native American, Alaska Native, Historically Underutilized Business-Zone, and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, are preferred sources.
Additional Green Acquisition Requirements.
The OFPP policy letter also would require agencies to:
• implement “automatic substitution policies” for the procurement of “functionally equivalent” green products and services in place of non-green orders for the same products and services ordered through central supply agencies such as the General Services Administration or the Defense Logistics Agency;
• include requirements and preferences for the use of green products in all newly awarded services contracts, or in recompetitions of existing services contracts;
• encourage the incorporation of requirements and preferences for the use of green products during modifications of existing services contracts; and
• require GSA, DLA, and other contract supply agencies to supply “designated green products” and to “phase out any competing non-green products from their catalogs and on-line ordering systems.”
Comments on the OFPP policy letter, “Acquisition of Green Products and Services,” are due Feb. 26. Comments may be submitted by e-mail to OFPPGreen@omb.eop.gov; subject line: “Proposed OFPP Policy letter.”
Copyright 2008, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington, D.C.
______________________________________________________
To whom it may concern:
This is a fantastic proposal, not only for the country and planet, but possibly, hopefully, for places like Flint, Saginaw, Detroit and the rest of the industrial Midwest. If you saw any of the coverage of the recent Michigan Primaries, you know how badly we are hurting here. Many have suggested that green technologies are our only hope to reinvigorate the Automotive industry, to create green jobs here. With no other industry likely to come in to replace Automotive in any substantive way (we in Michigan have lost nearly 400,000 good jobs and great people since 2001), planet-friendly cars can and should (heck, must) be a real solution. Unfortunately, the Big 3 have been sluggish, even downright indignant towards the move to more fuel-efficient vehicles, particularly plug-in electric hybrids. I have a strong suspicion that what holds them back is the real or perceived notion that, 'there is no viable market' to warrant mass production of these products. Now I'm no 'government to the rescue' guy by any means, but this policy letter really can be part of the hard proof I think they need in order to take their foot off the brake, and produce these products at the level the people of Flint, America and the world need. Congratulations on this proposal. Let's make it happen!
Thank you,
Bob Mabbitt
615 MLK Ave., #A1
Flint, MI 48502 |
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Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:27 am |
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