When the United States Department of Energy (DOE) held the world’s first Solar Decathlon, its home—logically—was the nation’s front lawn, the National Mall. This year, however, it might be shuffled to the nation’s side-lawn as the National Park Service (NPS) attempts to revitalize the over-tromped National Mall. But, Democratic members of Congress say the event doesn’t impede NPS’ revitalization plans and want the event to remain on the mall for its symbolism of the nation’s support for renewable energy.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee member, sent a letter to both DOE Secretary Steven Chu and Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, requesting the event remain on the mall. The letter was signed by 11 Representatives. A similar letter was sent to both department heads by 12 Senators, led by Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

The crux of the issue is that the NPS, which manages the land, wants to revitalize the park and has said that the Solar Decathlon has too much of an impact on the mall to be a sustainable use of the land.

With 20 colleges and universities from around the world—including New Zealand—competing this year, institutions have already planned to move their project homes to the national mall, included the location in printed materials and used the location to attract sponsorship, Spencer Culhane with competitor Team Massachusetts, told Clean Energy Authority last month.

“This is an event that gets quite a bit of exposure. Mr. Markey would be disappointed if it were moved to a different location,” said Markey spokesperson Even Burnham-Snyder said.” If the restoration isn’t going to happen until after this event, it seems a like a short-sighted decision to move this before turf restoration takes place.”

In the letters to the department heads, congressional leaders said that the park service’s National Mall restoration project will allow for the National Mall to host the Solar Decathlon in 2011.

“Recent developments make clear no conflict exists. According to NPS, restoration of the turf will not begin until well after the Decathlon is scheduled to take place. As a result, the Decathlon can go forward on the Mall without delaying turf restoration and any damage caused by the event would be remedied by the restoration plan,” wrote the Representatives.

The Representatives argued that “part of the Decathlon's allure is that it takes place in our nation's capitol, and no other city would allow participation by the administrators and policy-makers charged with implementing our national energy policy.”

Image courtesy of the Department of Energy.