Legislative Notice: S. 1392 – Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013
Noteworthy
- Floor Situation: On Tuesday, September 10 at 11:00 a.m., the motion to proceed to S. 1392 will be agreed to and the Senate will begin consideration of the bill. The bill was read for the second time and placed on the legislative calendar under Rule 14 on July 31, 2013.
- Background: The bill was introduced on July 30, 2013, by Senators Shaheen and Portman. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee has not considered S. 1392. However, it reported similar legislation, S. 761, by voice vote, with Senators Lee, Scott, and Flake asking to be recorded as voting against the bill on May 8, 2013.
Overview
S. 1392 seeks to promote energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings, the industrial sector, and federal government agencies. It supports energy-efficiency in building codes, manufacturing, supply chains, electric motors, transformers, and federal agencies. It provides authorizations for funding, technical assistance, and worker training for these purposes. It fully offsets these authorizations.
House Action
A companion bill to S. 1392 has not been introduced in the House. H.R. 1616, a companion bill to S. 761 (the committee-reported bill), was introduced in the House on April 18, 2013. It has been referred to various House committees. No further action has been taken.
Bill Provisions
Title I – Buildings
Greater Energy Efficiency in Building Codes
Amends sections 303, 304, and 307 of the Energy Conservation and Production Act, relating to state building energy efficiency codes. Provides enhanced authorities and responsibilities to the Department of Energy (DOE) with regard to energy codes. Does not mandate that states adopt energy codes.
Directs the Secretary of Energy to encourage and support adoption of building energy codes by states, Indian tribes, and local governments that meet or exceed model building energy codes, and to support state efforts for full compliance with these codes.
Includes the International Energy Conservation Code and codes used by the Council of American Building Officials (or its legal successor, International Code Council, Inc.), the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or “other appropriate organizations” as eligible model building energy codes.
Requires states and tribes to certify they have reviewed and updated energy provisions of their building codes within two years after a model building energy code is updated. The certification must demonstrate whether or not energy savings for their code provisions meet or exceed energy savings of the updated model building energy code or of targets established by the Secretary.
Requires states and tribes to certify they have achieved, or made significant progress toward, full compliance with the applicable certified code. The certification must demonstrate the rate of compliance based on independent inspections or alternative methods. Establishes criteria for determining whether states and tribes have achieved or made significant progress toward full compliance.
Requires states and tribes that do not achieve compliance by an applicable deadline to submit a report. A state or tribe’s lack of certification of building energy code updates and compliance with building energy codes may be a consideration for federal support made available by the bill for code adoption and compliance activities. A local government may be eligible for federal support if it achieves certification of building energy code updates and compliance with building energy codes even if its related state or tribe does not.
No mechanism is provided in the legislation to enforce the reporting requirements placed on states.
Requires the Secretary to establish aggregate energy savings targets for commercial and residential buildings to support the updating of model building energy codes. The energy savings targets can be incorporated into codes and standards developed by the private sector through consensus-based processes. DOE is required to establish all building energy savings targets through public notice and comment rulemaking procedures. DOE is allowed to establish separate targets for commercial and residential buildings. Requires DOE to subject the targets to a small business impact review and return-on-investment analysis.
Requires the Secretary to provide technical assistance for model building energy code-setting and standard development organizations. The Secretary may submit code amendment proposals to such organizations to enable codes to meet targets. Requires the Secretary to make transparent the methodology and data used by DOE to determine its calculations for any energy savings that may accrue from code or standard proposals and revisions.
Authorizes appropriations of $200 million, to remain available until expended. This authorized funding may be used by the Secretary to:
- Provide technical assistance to states and tribes regarding updating and implementing residential and commercial building energy codes; demonstrating the updated code provisions achieve equivalent or greater energy savings than model building energy codes and targets; documenting the rate of compliance with a building energy code; and otherwise promoting the design and construction of energy efficient buildings.
- Provide incentive funding to states and tribes regarding updating and implementing residential and commercial building energy codes, including increasing and verifying compliance with the codes and training state, tribe, and local building code officials. Provides additional funding for implementation of a plan to achieve and document full compliance with residential and commercial building energy codes. Allows states to use up to $750,000 of available funds to train state and local building code officials, and permits states to share grants with local governments.
- Provide technical and financial support for the development of stretch codes and advanced standards for residential and commercial buildings for use as an option for adoption as a building energy code and as guidelines for energy-efficient building design. Stretch codes allow individual jurisdictions to adopt more stringent energy codes within a larger, usually statewide, jurisdiction.
Building Training and Assessment Centers
Provides grants to higher education institutions to establish building training and assessment centers for many purposes, including: promoting energy efficiency and environmental performance in buildings; training engineers, architects, scientists, permitting, and enforcement officials in energy-efficient design and operation; and promoting research and development for the use of alternative energy sources and distributed generation to supply heat and power to buildings. Authorizes appropriations of $10 million, to remain available until expended.
Provides grants to nonprofit partnerships to pay the federal share of associated career skills training programs under which students receive classroom instruction and on-the-job training for the purpose of obtaining industry-related certification to install energy efficient building technologies. Establishes the federal share at 50 percent. Authorizes appropriations of $10 million, to remain available until expended.
Title II – Industrial Efficiency and Competitiveness
Manufacturing Energy Efficiency
Reforms and reorients DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.
Requires industrial research and assessment centers to: coordinate with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership Centers and DOE’s Building Technologies Program; increase partnerships with the DOE’s national laboratories, energy service providers, and technology providers; identify opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and promote sustainable manufacturing practices for small and medium-sized manufacturers.
Requires the Secretary to provide funding for outreach and coordination activities by industrial research and assessment centers. Requires the Secretary to pay the federal share (50 percent) of the costs of associated internship programs under which students work with industries, manufacturers, and energy service providers to implement the recommendations of industrial research and assessment centers. Expedites consideration of applications from eligible small businesses for loans under the Small Business Act to implement recommendations of industrial research and assessment centers.
Establishes an advisory steering committee to provide recommendations to the Secretary on planning and implementation of the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
Establishes the Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative. Provides manufacturers with onsite technical assessments regarding energy efficiency. Requires the Secretary to carry out a joint industry-government partnership program to research, develop, and demonstrate new sustainable manufacturing and industrial technologies and processes that maximize the energy efficiency of industrial plants, reduce pollution, and conserve natural resources.
Supply Star
Establishes the Supply Star Program. Identifies and promotes practices and recognizes companies and products that use highly efficient supply chains in a way that conserves energy, water, and other resources. In any evaluation of supply chain efficiency, requires consideration of energy consumption and resource use throughout the entire lifecycle of a product, including production, transport, packaging, use, and disposal.
Provides competitive grants for studying, demonstrating, and achieving supply chain energy resource efficiency. Requires any information or data generated because of the grants or incentives to be used to inform the development of the Supply Star Program.
Provides funds to support professional training programs to develop and communicate methods, practices, and tools for improving supply chain efficiency.
Excludes impact on climate change as a factor in determining supply chain efficiency. Excludes outsourcing of American jobs in the production of a product as a positive factor in determining supply chain efficiency.
Authorizes total appropriations of $10 million for the period from fiscal years 2014 to 2023.
Electric Motor Rebate Program
Establishes a program to provide rebates for expenditures made by qualified entities for the purchase and installation of qualified products. Qualified products include a new constant speed electric motor control that is attached to an electric motor and reduces motor energy use by at least five percent; commercial or industrial equipment that incorporates an advanced motor and drive system that has greater than one horsepower into redesigned equipment that did not previously use the advanced motor or drive system; commercial or industrial equipment that was previously used and placed back into service in calendar year 2014 or 2015 that upgrades the existing equipment with an advanced motor and drive system. Qualified entities are, with regard to the new constant speed electric motor control, the purchaser, and with regard to the advanced motor and drive system, the manufacturer of the equipment that incorporated the advanced motor and drive system into the equipment.
The authorized amount of rebate is equal to $25 for each horsepower of the electric motor to which the energy saving motor control is attached, or of the new electric motor that replaced the previously installed electric motor, or of the advanced electric motor control system. Limits aggregate rebates available to a qualified entity to $250,000.
Authorizes appropriations of $5 million for each of fiscal years 2014 and 2015, to remain available until expended.
Transformer Rebate Program
Establishes a program to provide rebates for expenditures made by owners of industrial or manufacturing facilities, commercial buildings, and multifamily residential buildings for the purchase and installation of new energy-efficient transformers. Specifies the authorized amount of rebate based on type and capacity of transformer.
Authorizes appropriations of $5 million for each of fiscal years 2014 and 2015, to remain available until expended.
Terminates authority on December 31, 2015.
Title III – Federal Agency Energy Efficiency
Requires issuance of guidance for federal agencies to employ advanced tools promoting energy efficiency and energy savings through the use of information and communications technologies, including computer hardware, operation and maintenance processes, energy efficiency software, and power management tools.
Requires each federal agency to submit a report describing the agency’s plan for implementing the guidance and estimated energy and financial savings.
Allows the Administrator of General Services to use appropriated funds to update the design of public building projects to meet applicable federal building energy efficiency standards. Limits the use of funds to no more than 125 percent of the estimated energy or other cost savings associated with the updates as determined by a life cycle cost analysis.
Requires development and publication of a goal for the total amount of planned energy and cost savings and increased productivity by the federal government through the consolidation of federal data centers, including a breakdown on a year-by-year basis of the projected savings and productivity gains. Exempts the Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program from the requirements of this section.
Provides for a $350 million offset by reducing authorized appropriations for the Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Reduces authorized appropriations for fiscal year 2015 to $150 million (down from $200 million) and for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2018 to $100 million (down from $200 million).
Administration Position
The Obama Administration has not issued a Statement of Administration Policy regarding S. 1392 at this time.
Amendments
There are no amendments pending to S. 1392 at this time.
Cost
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not scored S. 1392 at this time.