Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Alaska for her focus on the hydropower bills we may be considering here, and I am thankful for the focus from all my colleagues on hydropower and ways we can continue to improve the efficiency of our resources and make sure we are continuing to diversify.

I think we have outlined a good plan for today. Obviously we need the cooperation of our colleagues to keep moving forward on this legislation. We are going to have a couple of votes.

I am so pleased my colleague from Minnesota is here to talk about one of our first votes, a federal energy efficiency resource standard. He has been a leader on this issue.

Yesterday I outlined some of the great States in this Nation that have already adopted what are called energy efficiency resource standards, which have shown great success in helping to save energy and driving down demand, thereby saving money for both businesses and homeowners. I think it is something that will also receive a lot of enthusiasm as we move forward.

I know that we have many ideas; that is what I like about this Energy bill--it was bipartisan coming out of the committee, and so far it has been bipartisan on the Senate floor in working out these issues. I hope my colleagues will understand that there will be a point where we do have to move off of this bill. Hopefully, with the cooperation of Members, we can make a great deal of progress today on additional votes besides the two that are pending, set more votes for later this evening, and also continue the process of getting some of these other issues resolved in the meantime.

Again, I thank our colleagues for turning their focus to this. I thank my colleague for outlining where we have already been on the bill as it relates to the amendments we adopted last night and the continued progress. I think it comes down to the fact that as our economy changes, energy production needs to have the attention of our committee. We need to continue to be able to help empower this transformation that our economy is seeing on energy, and working together in a bipartisan fashion helps us to get there. It is good for our homeowners, it is good for businesses, and it is good for our economy.

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Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I am hopeful that before we go to the caucus lunches, we will be able to move forward on a few more amendments and the scheduling of votes. Hopefully we will be able to do that in a few minutes.

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