The Senate approved legislation on Wednesday that was drafted by U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to incentivize the use of commercially available energy efficiency technologies.
The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness (ESIC) Act was approved by the Senate as part of a larger energy bill. The ESIC Act seeks to use low-cost tools help energy users — including the federal government — become more efficient.
“Our energy efficiency bill helps create jobs, save consumers money on their energy bills, and clean up our environment,” Portman said. “This measure will help American manufacturing companies better compete with companies in Europe and Japan, keeping more jobs here and easing the middle class squeeze, while reducing carbon emissions equivalent to taking 20 million cars off the road. That’s a victory for all of us. A lot of hard work over the last five years went into passage of this bipartisan bill and I want to thank Sen. Shaheen for being a true partner throughout this process.”
The goal of the bill is to foster a transition to a more energy efficient economy while driving economic growth and creating private sector jobs.
“Sen. Portman and I first introduced our energy efficiency bill five years ago,” Shaheen said. “Senate gridlock couldn’t keep this good policy down forever. I’m happy to say persistence has once again paid-off. When the president signed our more targeted energy efficiency bill into law last year, it proved that Washington can make progress on addressing our nation’s energy needs when politics is set aside.”
Additional measures introduced by Portman included in the larger energy bill include the National Park Service Centennial Act to mark the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary, the WaterSense Amendment to promote water efficiency, and the External Power Supply Amendment to narrow Department of Energy standards that negatively impact LED and ceiling fan manufacturers.