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Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am really pleased to be on the floor this afternoon with my friend and colleague Senator Rob Portman to talk about an issue that we have been working on, literally, for a decade, and it has been a bipartisan effort to focus on energy efficiency as a response to the energy needs in this country.

In 2011, Senator Portman and I introduced S. 1000, which was the first version of the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. Over the years, it has been known as Shaheen-Portman, when we were in the majority on the Democratic side, or Portman-Shaheen, when the Republicans were in the majority.

But it doesn't matter what you call it. Our bill has proposed substantial investments in energy efficiency in this country, and what we did in the bill was to focus on the most energy-intensive sectors in our economy: buildings, residential and commercial, which is about a third of our energy use; the industrial sector; and the Federal Government. And, in the United States, the biggest user of energy is the Federal Government.

In a Congress that is divided along partisan lines on so many issues, energy efficiency is one priority that can bring us together on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to get things done. I always like to say that energy efficiency is one of those energy sources that you can support whether you are from New England or Ohio or Wyoming. Whether you support oil and gas or wind and solar, energy efficiency is the fastest, cheapest way to meet our energy needs.

Our legislation has always focused on low-cost tools and adoption of off-the-shelf technologies to save money for consumers and businesses, to make America more energy independent, and to reduce emissions.

And over the years, over the last decade, we have had some big wins. In 2015, President Obama signed a targeted version of Shaheen-Portman, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, into law. That bill helped align the interests of commercial building owners and their tenants to reduce energy consumption, and it allowed certain water heaters to help with demand response programs in rural areas.

Now, we have also made great strides through annual appropriations and administrative actions on things like energy efficiency standards for appliances.

Of course, we have also had some real defeats. But, though frustrating, as those defeats were, our resolve on this bill has never wavered, and when we reintroduced Portman-Shaheen last Congress, we worked to again incorporate feedback from stakeholders. For 7 months, our staffs held back-to-back meetings with constituents, stakeholders, and committee staff to ensure the bill addressed the energy needs in New Hampshire, Ohio, and the rest of the country.

Improving the efficiency of residential and commercial buildings through energy-saving building codes remained central to our bill, as did industrial energy efficiency provisions and improvements to Federal energy efficiency programs.

We also, again, included energy efficiency bills from our colleagues. So in that piece of legislation, we included Senators Murkowski and Manchin's Federal Energy and Water Management Performance Act. We included Senators Hoeven and Manchin's All-of-the-Above Federal Building Energy Conservation Act. And we included Senator Collins and Warner's legislation coordinating the energy retrofitting for schools. Finally, as part of that, we included Senator Bennet and Senator Isakson's Sensible Accounting to Value Energy Act, or the SAVE Act.

So there were a lot of reasons why a number of Members of this body were interested in that legislation. But it was also a real savings because, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the policies from that bill would save consumers over $51 billion on their energy bills. It would reduce carbon emissions by 1.3 billion metric tons, which is the equivalent of taking 280 million cars off the road for a year. And it would save 32 quadrillion Btus of energy, which is nearly the total energy use of all U.S. industries for 1 year.

Now, a previous study from ACEEE also estimated that the legislation would add more than 100,000 jobs to the economy. That bill passed the Energy and Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 14 to 6, and it was the fifth time--fifth time--the bill passed in committee on a bipartisan basis.

Now, I am proud to say that the Energy Policy Act of 2020 that was signed into law by President Trump at the end of last year had several provisions from that Shaheen-Portman legislation that would streamline efficiency for schools, increase energy efficiency for Federal data centers, provide rebates for energy-efficient electric motors and transformers, and support Federal energy efficiency programs. But, of course, a piece of that bill was left on the cutting room floor, with the voluntary building codes, where so much of the savings was really incorporated.

But despite the success and the defeat in the last Congress, we came into this year as determined as ever. And as part of the original Gang of 10, Senator Portman and I teamed up to ensure that energy efficiency was a big part of the bipartisan infrastructure framework.

We worked with Senator Manchin and our bipartisan colleagues to incorporate much of Shaheen-Portman with funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

I am going to turn it over to Senator Portman for a few minutes so my voice can recover, and then I will pick it up when he finishes.

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague and partner in this effort, Senator Portman. And as he pointed out, on November 15, President Biden became the third President to sign energy efficiency provisions from our bill into law.

Now, we still have a lot of work to do. But I just want to recognize current and former Shaheen-Portman staff who have helped us shepherd this bill through its many obstacles.

From my staff, I want to thank Trent Bauserman, Robert Diznoff, Ariel Marshall, Drew Story, and Janelle DiLuccia.

From Senator Portman's staff, I want to thank Pam Thiessen, Steve Kittredge, Pat Orth, Sarah Peery, and Lydia Denis.

I would like to ask unanimous consent to enter the names of these current and former staff into the Record.

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Finally, I want to thank the chairs and ranking members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee who have played such a pivotal role over the years: Senators Manchin, Murkowski, Cantwell and Wyden and their staffs.

Senator Portman talked about all of the various groups who have been involved in helping to move this legislation where we are today. So I won't go back over those. But I will say, again, energy efficiency is a win, win, win. It create jobs; it reduces cost to consumers; and it lowers emissions.

And as our economy recovers and grows, the investments in energy efficiency from our bipartisan infrastructure package are going to make sure that we use energy smarter. And I am going continue to partner with Senator Portman and others so we can unlock the full potential of energy efficiency for our growing economy.

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