Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I have been watching with admiration the work done by my colleagues from New Hampshire and Ohio, Senators SHAHEEN and PORTMAN, and I would suggest in all respect to colleagues who may have extraneous amendments that this measure is so important and vital to the future of our country. It is important not only in the policies it achieves but also the trust it will inspire. If we are able to come together and work on a bipartisan basis and get this job done, it can set a template for changing the mindset within this building and across the country as to how Congress can function.

We have an opportunity here. Let's seize it. Let's avoid the kind of quagmire, gridlock, and paralysis that has been so damaging to the trust and confidence in our public institutions.

Senators SHAHEEN and PORTMAN deserve a tremendous amount of credit for getting this bill to where it is right now. They never gave up, and I am proud they have come this far. Let us enable this Congress to go the rest of the way.

This legislation is more than the sum of its parts. It is about saving money--clearly saving $13.7 billion per year--and it is about saving energy and creating jobs. It will create 164,000 jobs by 2030, so it is also a great return on investment. It is also about creating trust and confidence in our ability to protect our national security from excess use of energy that makes us more dependent on nations that have no particular affection for us, and indeed, wish us more harm than good.

This legislation authorizes $10 million in grants for institutions of higher learning, trade schools, and community colleges to provide workforce training and skill creation to engineers and builders who need to develop and install the latest, most cutting-edge technologies. It provides limited but very helpful rebates of up to $20 million over the next 2 years for manufacturers who upgrade their electric motors and transformers.

It directs the Department of Energy to focus its ongoing research and development offices on alternative energy sources for our heating and power. These measures, along with energy efficiency required in our Federal buildings and facilities, are meaningful and real. They may not be the biggest steps but they are important steps that take us in the right direction toward saving energy, money, and ultimately saving our planet. We know climate change--more properly known as climate and planet disruption--are facing us if we fail to act as this measure would have us do.

I have an amendment to the bill that will provide for very straightforward, noncontroversial steps in this same direction. It is amendment No. 1878, and it would require the U.S. Department of Energy to study the nonmonetary benefits to our communities of energy-saving products and complying with energy codes for buildings.

For example, buildings account for almost 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. We all see the difference energy efficiency makes in our pocketbooks and wallets. This amendment will help quantify these same improvements so far as a cleaner environment, and energy saving contributes in nonmonetary ways to our quality of life. It makes us more efficient in the workplace because the quality of life in the workplace is improved and better conditions make people more productive.

There are other amendments, such as the fine work done by my colleague Senator Bennet of Colorado to get a better understanding of the financial--that is the monetary savings that commercial energy-efficient buildings generate for both owners and tenants. My amendment looks to the nonmonetary benefits and seeks to quantify them and build a case for energy efficiency there and throughout our society insofar as we work better and enjoy life more from savings this bill may achieve in money and energy.

As chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight of Federal and Agency Actions, I have seen how Federal agencies are able, through the rulemaking process, to take into account the nonmonetary factors during their cost-benefit analysis. Consumers and manufacturers should also have a better understanding of the nonmonetary factors that are addressed through energy efficiency, such as improved building codes that benefit occupants and the general population as well as greater office productivity.

There are three areas of manufacturing in Connecticut that are thriving because of energy efficiency. United Technologies makes building systems, elevators, and heating and air conditioning units and systems that are focused on the most innovative and sustainable technology. We all use their energy-efficient Otis elevators every day to come to the Senate floor, to

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bring constituents to the Capitol Visitor Center.
At Legrand in West Hartford, CT, visitors can see firsthand the jobs this legislation supports. Legrand employs about 500 people. They make the electrical and digital insides of buildings across commercial, industrial, and residential markets. They have a demonstration visitors can walk through and see how energy-efficient products work and how they save energy, money, and also improve quality of life.

This past May Legrand was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for its continuing efforts in making energy efficiency a top priority through that company's involvement in the Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge.

Connecticut is also leading the world in making energy-efficient fuel cells and hydrogen energy systems, which is a third area of great importance in energy savings. Fuel cells are of great importance to everything from our neighborhood schools to military bases to many other areas where inexpensive energy storage and power, as well as increased reliability, result from grid independence. These lessons are tangible, real, and dramatic. They are lessons in energy efficiency.

In fact, after Superstorm Sandy, we know something about the need for reliable backup power in Connecticut. Fuel cells are our future, and we should be recognizing that energy efficiency is our future as well. It is an investment that helps everyone in all communities.

I have long supported making energy efficiency more supportable, affordable, and reliable by improving the existing and new technologies. Since arriving in the Senate, I have fought for continued adequate funding for weatherization assistance programs.

A comprehensive energy strategy is what the Nation needs. This measure is a step in that direction. We cannot live successfully and we cannot thrive as a Nation in the 21st century without an energy policy and without moving forward on measures such as this one that enable us to be more energy efficient.

This legislation is an important approach and part of a comprehensive policy our Nation needs to address climate disruption, national security threats, fiscal austerity, and all of the challenges of quality of life that are so imminent and direct to our Nation.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleague and friend from Louisiana for his support of my amendment and say that I respect and appreciate the passion and zeal he has brought to this debate on behalf of his beliefs. We can disagree on the policies and the merits of those beliefs, and I would respectfully add my voice to the voices of other colleagues who have suggested there may be other ways to raise this issue and to indeed have a vote. As my colleague from New Hampshire articulated so well, I would in no way shirk from votes on the issues the Senator from Louisiana has raised. I am ready to debate and confront those issues and deal with the merits. I would simply suggest there may be better ways to raise this issue than, in effect, to block consideration of a bill that is so important to the American people, so widely supported among so many different groups, and has amassed and mobilized such a strong bipartisan coalition.

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