Tenn Tuesday! Spotlight on Shaheen-Portman Energy Savings Act

Making 120 Energy Efficiency Amendments SEXY…

We’re going to do something a little different today by focusing on a specific piece of federal legislation currently before the U.S. Senate called the “Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act” (S 1392).

This bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) is the first significant energy bill to see the floor of the Senate since 2007, which President George W. Bush eventually signed into law as the Energy Independence and Security Act.

The Shaheen-Portman legislation (S. 1392) is not only an extremely exciting bill for Appalachian Voices and for our fellow advocates of energy efficiency, but it already has strong bipartisan support. The bill focuses on improvements in three main areas; 1) building codes, 2) industrial energy efficiency, and 3) energy improvements to federal facilities. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has MUCH more in “White Paper” form.

Energy Efficiency is pretty non-controversial, obviously, and we celebrated as the bill sailed through the Senate Energy Committee by a vote of 19-3. Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander was one of the many Republicans to join his Democratic colleagues in taking a positive step for our energy future, our economy and the environment.

The bill was on the Senate floor last week, but was tabled when Senator David Vitter (R-LA) blocked a vote on the bill and its amendments due to an unrelated issue.

He essentially ran out the clock by demanding that Democrats allow a vote for defunding Obamacare. So now, before any votes were taken, the Senate had to move on from the bill amid Republican shouts that we should defund Obamacare or shut down the government completely. The hope is that they return to Shaheen-Portman once the budget battle is over. But it’s not quite that simple.

Since the bill has gone through Committee, there have been 120 amendments filed on topics ranging from energy efficiency financing to golf carts. Now, Republican and Democratic leadership still have to work out which of the amendments will receive actual votes on the floor. Some of the amendments would make the bill even stronger, and some of them would basically mean a quickening of the apocalypse for communities in the coal-bearing counties of Central Appalachia.

So the Appalachian Voices team thought that we would consolidate and summarize these amendments for you. Here are the 120 amendments that have been filed so far. Click “link” for more information about each amendment. Feel free to leave questions in the comments.

So here we go…

Shaheen-Portman Amendments

Some of the amendments that are particularly exciting to us are:

#1932 – (Sanders-Wyden (D) / Murkowski (R))
This amendment would allow states and other entities to compete for grants from the Department of Energy (DOE) to help perform energy efficiency upgrades in residential buildings.

#1940 – Klobuchar (D) / Hoeven (R)
This amendment, originally introduced as the Non-Profit Energy Efficiency Act, would provide matching grants to non-profits (including houses of worship, etc) who are making efficiency upgrades.

#1952 – Warner / Manchin / Tester / Schatz (D)
Originally introduced as the “State Energy Race to the Top” Initiative (S 1209), provides grants to states who can revise their energy conservation plans. The goal of the amendment is to double electric and thermal productivity by the year 2030.

So, all of that said, we hope that the Senate will get back to work soon to continue their extremely important work for the economy, environment and our energy future by passing Shaheen-Portman. Then, we can all go over to the U.S. House of Representatives and do this all again!

About JW Randolph

Raised on the banks of the Tennessee River, JW's work to create progress in his home state and throughout Appalachia has been featured on the Rachel Maddow Show, The Daily Kos and Grist. He served first as Appalachian Voices’ Legislative Associate and then Tennessee director until leaving to pursue a career in medicine in 2012.