Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 -- Motion to Proceed -- Resumed

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am very disappointed at the actions of the Senate this evening: that we were not able to come together after all of the work and all of the support from groups across this country for energy efficiency legislation; that we cannot bridge our differences and get this bill done, despite the broad bipartisan support, despite the support of organizations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the National Association of Manufacturers to the NRDC environmental groups to the painters union. We had groups across the political spectrum supporting this legislation--the Alliance to Save Energy, which was really the brain child behind this legislation. Yet we were not able to come together to support a bill that would have made progress on the jobs front, progress on savings for consumers, and progress on preventing pollution.

I thank Senator Landrieu, who has chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Senator Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, for their kind words about this legislation this evening. I also thank my partner, who worked as hard on this bill as I did, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, and the good work of both his staff and my staff in trying to move this efficiency agenda forward.

Unfortunately, we saw tonight that differences in this body have prevented positive progress. The reason that is so unfortunate is because energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest, cleanest way to address this country's energy demand, because energy that we don't use is energy that we don't have to produce. And efficiency saves money, lessens our dependence on imported energy, decreases pollution, and improves our Nation's global competitiveness.

In addition, energy efficiency investments enable domestic businesses to leverage private capital, to reduce business risks associated with price volatility, to spur economic growth, and to create jobs. All of those are part of this Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act that Senator Portman and I cosponsored along with a great group of bipartisan sponsors from this body.

One of the aspects I like about energy efficiency is that it doesn't matter whether one supports fossil fuels or whether one supports alternative sources of energy; everyone benefits from energy efficiency. In the last 40 years we have saved more through energy efficiency in this country than we have produced through fossil fuels and nuclear power combined. So there is huge potential benefit in energy efficiency, and it is important for us to figure out a way to move this legislation forward.

In the last 3 1/2 years I have visited businesses across New Hampshire--small retail businesses, manufacturing companies, ski areas, apartment complexes, municipal buildings. Today I was at the opening of a new expansion of Airmar Technologies in New Hampshire, a beautiful new facility. They make sensors that go in everything from ships to weather instruments to detect weather. They were very proud that in constructing the new building they made it energy efficient. This is a win-win-win. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, if we pass this bill this year by 2030 we will help create 192,000 jobs, we will save consumers $16.2 billion a year, and it will be the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road, all because we are saving energy.

We ought to all be able to come together behind this. I am not going to quit. I don't think the sponsors of this legislation are going to quit. All of those 260-plus businesses, organizations out there that have been advocating for this bill, are not going to quit because this is legislation that makes sense. It makes sense for job creation, it makes sense for saving on pollution, it makes sense for saving money, it makes sense to our national competitiveness, and we are going to keep at it until we pass this legislation.

I hope politics will stay out of the way; that we will come together, we will agree on amendments we can all vote on, and that we will be able to move forward in a positive way.

I thank the Presiding Officer. I yield the floor.

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