Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of S. 535, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015. This is bipartisan legislation to promote energy efficiency that recently passed the Senate by unanimous consent.
S. 535--sponsored by Senators Portman and Shaheen--is very similar to legislation reported last Congress by the Energy and Commerce Committee which passed the House with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. The bill addresses three main areas: energy efficient buildings, the grid-enabled water heaters, and energy benchmarking and information disclosure for federal buildings.
Title one is comprised of the Better Buildings Act, bipartisan legislation sponsored in the House by Reps. McKinley and Welch. Section 102 of the bill directs the General Services Administration to develop model leasing provisions and best practices to encourage commercial building owners and tenants to invest in cost-effective energy efficiency measures. It also ensures the model leasing provisions are available for use in federal leases and, along with the best practices, are available for state and local governments to also use. Additionally, Section 103 directs the Department of Energy (DOE) to study improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings through design and construction of separate tenant spaces with high-performance energy efficiency measures. And, Section 104 directs EPA to develop a voluntary ``Tenant Star'' program within the Energy Star program to promote energy efficiency in separate spaces leased by tenants in commercial buildings and requires the Agency to establish an Energy Star rating system to recognize tenants in commercial buildings that voluntarily achieve high levels of energy efficiency in separate spaces.
Title two establishes a separate energy efficiency standard for grid-enabled water heaters, which are used in utility demand-response and thermal storage programs. This is substantially the same language included in H.R. 906, legislation sponsored by Chairman Whitfield, Mr. Loebsack and others that was reported without dissent last week by our committee. In addition to establishing a separate standard for these water heaters, the provision requires those units to have a built-in activation lock to ensure their participation in such a program.
Finally, title three is essentially the same as H.R. 1867, legislation sponsored by Reps. Castor and Kinzinger regarding energy information for commercial buildings. Section 301 requires federally-leased buildings without Energy Star labels to benchmark and disclose their energy usage data except in certain circumstances. It also requires DOE to complete a study of best practices regarding the impacts of state and local performance benchmarking and disclosure policies for commercial and multifamily buildings, as well as utility policies for providing aggregated information to owners of multitenant buildings to assist with benchmarking programs. In addition, it requires DOE to maintain a database to store and make available public energy-related information on commercial and multifamily buildings.
S. 535 is a stripped down version of the Shaheen-Portman efficiency legislation that has taken far too long to pass either chamber. However, I am disappointed that--unlike the original Shaheen-Portman bill--the proposal before us does not contain provisions authored by Rep. Eshoo that would address the efficiency of federal data centers. This is an area where we can easily see a great gain in efficiency relatively quickly and easily and her proposal has good bipartisan support. So, I have to note with concern the fact that something as useful and bipartisan as that federal data center efficiency language could not make it into the final package, despite being something that enjoys support on both sides.
I hope that is an anomaly and not a harbinger of things to come, because we need to look at both sides of the equation--demand and supply, consumers and producers--to construct an energy policy for the future, one that is both economically and environmentally sustainable. And we need the resources of both sides of the aisle, both chambers of Congress and all branches of government to get there.
Today, the Obama Administration released the first installment of its Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) after a year-long, detailed examination of our energy needs. The QER is not exactly glamorous, but it is a serious, thoughtful and necessary look at how best to modernize America's energy infrastructure to create jobs and grow our economy in a manner that ensures our energy security and protects our environment. While I look forward to reviewing the complete report, I know that the progress updates we have received throughout the year have elicited positive and hopeful reactions from both sides of the aisle.
That's why I'm particularly pleased that the Administration is releasing this now while our Committee and our counterparts in the other body are considering the components of a possible bipartisan energy bill. We must meet consumers' need for reliable, affordable and, just as importantly, clean energy--one of the nation's most pressing issues. The QER looks to the future of our economy to take full advantage of American innovation and the new sources of domestic energy supply that are transforming the nation's energy marketplace. Just like efficiency, energy infrastructure--particularly with regard to size, scope, volume and siting--is critical to that endeavor. So, too, is the makeup--not just the volume--of the jobs that are created in modernizing that infrastructure; they must be jobs that are long-term, well-paying, and a gateway to the American dream for a diverse range of women and men.
As Chairman Upton, Chairman Whitfield, Ranking Member Rush and I continue to explore the potential for developing and moving a bipartisan energy bill during this Congress, I hope we will take advantage of the QER, as well as the best consensus ideas on both sides of the aisle here in Congress. That, to me, is the only successful path forward and it is the process embodied in the legislation before us today.
I urge my colleagues to support both the legislation before us and continuing the effort to build a broad, bipartisan partnership on energy issues. Only through this kind of cooperation can we enact energy legislation that truly powers our economy and our future.
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