Alliance Honorary Chair Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Vice-Chair Senator Rob Portman (R-Oh.) have introduced the Energy Savings and Industrial Competiveness Act of 2015 (Portman-Shaheen). The newest iteration of this energy efficiency legislation is very similar to the last version, S. 2262, with a few changes outlined below. The bill contains the base components of the original bill and retains the 10 additional provisions that were “baked in” prior to the introduction of S. 2262.  

The Portman-Shaheen bill is projected to create 192,000 jobs, save $16.2 billion annually and avoid 95 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually by 2030.

A brief overview of the changes made to the 2015 Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act are listed below.

• The addition of “water efficiency” to the definition of “Energy Service Provider”;
• Renamed and updated the “Extended Product System Rebate Program” to encompass a systems approach rather than a component approach;
• Modified Sec. 231. Energy Efficient Transformer Rebate Program to account for the 2016 implementation of new DOE efficiency standards for transformers;
• Removed the “fig leaf” from Sec. 432, referencing the High Performance and Sustainable Building Guidance; and
• Modified and replaced Section 441, Voluntary certification programs for air conditioning, furnace, boiler, heat pump, and water heaters products, with Voluntary verification programs for air conditioning, furnace, boiler, heat pump, and water heater products, which would require DOE to initiate a negotiated rulemaking with all stakeholders to establish criteria for a federally recognized voluntary independent verification program.

For the full side-by-side comparison of these two bills, please refer to the attached document above.