42 U.S.C. § 18744 — 21st Century Energy Workforce Advisory Board

(a) Establishment
The Secretary^* must create the "21st Century Energy Workforce Advisory Board" to build a Department strategy that: meets the energy sector's current and future workforce needs; helps students qualify for jobs in traditional and emerging energy fields; finds where the Department's technical expertise can help other agencies' workforce efforts; strengthens Department and National Laboratory training programs, including the Department's Equity in Energy Initiative; plans how to support and retrain energy workers who lose their jobs; and prioritizes education and job training for underrepresented groups -- racial and ethnic minorities, Indian Tribes, women, veterans, and people facing economic hardship.

(b) Membership
The Board must have 10 to 15 members, appointed by the Secretary within 1 year of November 15, 2021. At least one member must represent a labor organization with energy experience, nominated by a national labor federation. Each member must have expertise in economics or workforce development; traditional or emerging energy industries, including energy efficiency; secondary or postsecondary education; state^* or local energy workforce or apprenticeship programs; organized labor; or bringing underrepresented groups into the workforce.

(c) Advisory Board review and recommendations
In building its strategy, the Board must: figure out whether the Department could use its abilities more efficiently to build a skilled energy workforce; find ways the Department can work with other agencies, states, local governments, colleges, labor groups, and Tribes; find ways the Department and National Laboratories can reach out more to minority-serving institutions and to displaced or unemployed energy workers, and provide resources to train more minorities, women, and displaced workers for energy jobs; and identify which energy sectors need workforce training most, working with the Secretary of Labor to recommend the skills needed. The Board must also study how well the Department's existing support and training programs are working.

Starting 1 year after the Board is created, and every two years after that until the Board ends, the Board must report to the Secretary its findings and its proposed workforce strategy. Within 90 days, the Secretary must respond, saying whether each recommendation is approved (and if so, how it will be carried out), and must send both the Board's report and the Secretary's response to Congress. The Board must make each report public -- either when it gets the Secretary's response, or 90 days after submitting the report, whichever comes first -- and must publish the Secretary's response alongside it if one was given in time.

(d) Report by the Secretary
Not later than 180 days before the date on which a term of the Board expires, the Secretary must submit to the Senate Committees on Energy and Natural Resources and Appropriations and the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and Appropriations a report that describes the Board's effectiveness and accomplishments during that term; states whether the Secretary thinks the Board should be renewed; and, if the Secretary thinks it should be renewed, gives any recommendations about whether and how the Board's scope and functions should be changed.

(e) Outreach to minority-serving institutions, veterans, and displaced and unemployed energy workers
In building its strategy, the Board must pay special attention to reaching minority-serving institutions, veterans, and displaced or unemployed energy workers; direct resources to institutions serving these groups so more of them get trained for energy jobs; encourage the energy industry to improve opportunities for students from minority-serving institutions, veterans, and displaced or unemployed energy workers to participate in internships, preapprenticeships, apprenticeships, and cooperative work-study programs in the energy industry; and work with the National Laboratories to include more of these groups in internships, fellowships, training, and jobs there.

(f) Term
The Board ends on September 30, 2026. The Secretary may renew it for one or more additional 5-year periods by submitting, by the deadline in subsection (d), a report that determines the Board should continue.