Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I offer this amendment with Mr. Scott Peters of California. Mr. Peters and I both have an interest in saving money--and this amendment would save $5 million--and in putting our money wisely in research on renewable energies which saves individuals money--individual citizens money--and protects our environment and using that money, instead of putting the money in the budget to do research on coal and fossil fuels that contribute to global warming and a threat to our environment.

The fact is the Department of Energy's energy efficiency program has been effective. This would increase it by $10.3 million. This program is underfunded already in the bill, and it would take $15 million from funds that are in the budget for coal research and development--$15 million that are in excess of the President's budget request.

The Department of Energy's energy efficiency programs partner with private industry, small business, and academics to facilitate research, development, and deployment of innovative energy efficiency technologies in manufacturing, buildings, and homes.

In this collaboration with these different stakeholders, they have determined the best practices that can be found and then put into commercial use, resulting in energy-saving advancements that create jobs and give businesses competitive advantages with foreign competitors.

Increasing energy efficiency is often done in ways that the individual citizen benefits in their home by saving money by more energy-efficient devices and appliances.

We work on these in the Energy Department now, and they finalized new efficiency standards for more than 30 household and commercial products. These include dishwashers, refrigerators, water heaters--just the general stuff you have got in your kitchen and your home.

Because of the Energy Department's new efficiency standards, consumers are estimated to save more than $400 billion--$400 billion for our constituents, consumers--and we will be cutting greenhouse emissions by 1.8 billion metric tons through 2030. That is a lot of help to our environment and a whole lot of help to our constituents in saving money.

Just as an example, walk-in coolers and freezers, the rules that have been proposed will yield $37 billion in savings, while cutting 159 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That is the equivalent of taking 30 million cars off the road.

As the cost of energy continues to pose a burden on the American consumers' wallets--our voters, our taxpayers, our constituents--and costs them more money and extreme weather causes climate change which threatens the fauna and the flora, our property and way of life, we need to find ways to reduce energy consumption and decrease those adverse affects upon our environment.

Mr. Chairman, we need to redouble our efforts at this point on renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the efforts by this amendment would save money--$5 million for the budget, energy deficit reduction--it would protect our environment by having more research on energy efficiency standards, save our consumers and constituents money, and protect our environment at the same time, and yet not have us invest needlessly in fossil fuels, which is the opposite direction we should be going.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment and show their vote for fiscally conservative, sound budget deficit reduction programs, as well as protect the environment and be concerned about the effects on the pocketbook of our individual consumers.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Chairman, I am going to close by saying that one day--one day, this House will see that we need to have more and more money put into research on energy efficiency and renewables and not into fossil fuel.

I feel a cold wind coming from the South, and I realize that today is not that day, but one day, one day. I feel a chill coming, and I don't want anyone else to get a cold.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

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