Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
Key Energy Efficiency Initiatives Were Recently Signed Into Law as Part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
December 15, 2021 | Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) joined Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in delivering remarks on the Senate floor highlighting their bipartisan Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESIC), landmark energy efficiency legislation that the Senators have championed. Key provisions of this legislation were recently signed into law as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These provisions will improve energy efficiency in buildings and the industrial sector, which will help reduce emissions, protect the environment, and create jobs.
Portman also touted his long-running partnership with Shaheen on energy efficiency legislation, noting that this is an issue which attracts support from legislators on both sides of the aisle.
A transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here.
“Well, first of all, it’s great to be on the floor with my friend Jeanne Shaheen and talk about something positive, something that we’ve been able to accomplish over the years, as she said we’ve been at this over a decade, which is to encourage more energy efficiency. This is the ability for us to save energy by not using it. It’s therefore sort of energy found. It’s also an ability to improve the economy because it creates more jobs and makes us more competitive globally by having lower energy costs. Think about the businesses in your state.
“The competitive nature of business today is that you’re really competing with the Europeans and the Japanese and the Chinese and so on. And if you have higher energy costs and you’re not energy efficient, you’re not going to be competitive. But if you’re competitive, it adds jobs, makes the economy stronger. So the way I look at it, if you’re interested in lower emissions and a better environment and at the same time you’re interested in a better economy and creating jobs, then energy efficiency is the low hanging fruit. That’s the thing we can all agree with.
“I applaud Senator Shaheen because she’s been patient. We’ve both been patient, as our staff has been over the years in getting pieces of our legislation in various bills that have passed this United States Senate and the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Obama, President Trump and now President Biden. The most recent one was the infrastructure bill, and it’s exciting what we were able to get in there in terms of encouraging a better, more sustainable use of our energy resources, in both the public sector and in the private sector.
“Importantly, energy efficiency is also an important part of a more reliable and resilient grid, which was part of our legislation – improving the electrical grid. We’ve had some pretty severe weather events over the last year. As you know, I was just in Kentucky over the weekend, my neighboring state, helping out on the clean up there. And boy, electricity was out everywhere. By improving energy efficiency, we can reduce demand, taking pressure off our power grids and help create more stability. These are some of the reasons why, since 2011, we’ve worked together to promote this energy efficiency bill called the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitors Act.
“Senator Shaheen called it Portman-Shaheen, I call it Shaheen-Portman because she’s in charge now. The Senate is in the Democrats’ majority, not ours. But we’ve worked together seamlessly, it’s really been nonpartisan. And again, our goal has been really three different areas. One, residential and commercial buildings because that’s where we use a lot of energy. About 40% of the energy used in this country is used there. Also to ensure that the federal government does a better job. You know the federal government uses more energy than any other entity in the entire economy. By the way, uses more energy than anybody in the world. And they don’t do it very efficiently. In fact, there’s a lot of energy inefficiency in our federal government, so practice what you preach, right? So you have the government telling everybody else they’ve got to be green, but the government itself is not green. So our legislation requires that the federal government take steps to make it more energy efficient as well.
“And then finally, the manufacturing sector. Here’s where there’s a great opportunity and manufacturers are really excited about it because we can provide some incentives, some best practices, and so on to make them more competitive globally by improving their energy efficiency.
“We’ve created a big tent through this process, joining forces with our colleagues over the years for the purpose of supporting these kind of common–sense energy efficiency measures. A number of senators that have had important parts of our legislation that includes Senator Wicker, Senator Bennett, Senator Collins, Senator Manchin, Senator Hoeven and others, Senator Murkowski.
“Our legislation has been voted on by this body before. In 2016, it passed the United States Senate. It also passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee five separate times, with bipartisan support. By the way, in 2016, the vote was 85 to 12. That was part of a larger energy package, but that was a pretty strong sign of bipartisan support for this, and it improved energy efficiency in that case, and leased office space and improved energy savings from water heaters, as an example. However, we’ve long recognized we need to do more to be able to save energy and save money. According to the U.S. Information Agency Energy Information Administration, residential and commercial buildings accounted for 40% of total energy consumption.
“In addition, reports from the U.S. part of Energy have found the federal government again as the single largest energy consumer in the country. And those studies have shown that our legislation as a whole would save consumers $51 billion on energy bills, reduce carbon emissions by 1.3 billion tons, not by hurting jobs but by creating more jobs because it would add more than 100,000 jobs to the economy.
“Over the years, our legislation has gained the support of industry such as the National Association of Manufacturers, American Chemistry Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It has support of commercial and real estate developers like BOMA and the Real Estate Roundtable, as well as from efficiency advocates in the environmental community, like the Alliance to Save Energy, called ACEEE.
“There’s not a lot in Washington these days that has such a broad group of stakeholders supporting it. But there’s a reason this legislation has received such broad support. It reduces emissions by reducing energy consumption. It also creates new jobs and lowers energy bills for consumers. And it does all this without putting any new mandates on the private sector. Particularly now at a time of record inflation and rising energy costs, investing in improving energy efficiency is a smart way to help support hardworking families in Ohio and around the country.
“The good news is that now, with the bipartisan structure bill signed into law, we are much closer to seeing the benefits for the American people become a reality. The infrastructure bill, which we co-authored, along with a bunch of our colleagues, included a total of $2.5 billion for various energy efficiency projects. Included in these critical investments are a number of our provisions from Shaheen-Portman. For example, we were able to include and fund programs to help incentivize contractors, home builders and others to adapt and implement updated building codes. We’re also able to fund programs that help career skill development, to help us train a workforce able to develop and install important new energy efficiency technologies. That’s been one of our challenges.
“For example, we include funding to enhance the Industrial Assessment Centers’ program at the Department of Energy. This program allows students from around the country to conduct energy assessments and small and medium sized manufacturers to improve their competitiveness, reduce waste, save energy while at the same time training students in the field. By the way, it’s these kinds of small changes and upgrades that can result in big emissions and cost savings for businesses all around the country.
“So I’m truly proud of what we’ve accomplished, including in the infrastructure bill most recently. And again, I want to thank my colleague, Senator Shaheen, for her tireless work to get this legislation across the finish line. Again, energy efficiency, the low hanging fruit. I look forward to continuing our partnership on these important issues.”
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