PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS TARGETED SHAHEEN-PORTMAN BILL INTO LAW

(Washington, D.C.) – This afternoon, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) attended a ceremony at the White House today where President Obama signed into law her bipartisan energy efficiency legislation. The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015, introduced by Shaheen with Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), passed the Senate in March and the House earlier this month.

“Granite Staters want to see Washington working together for the good of New Hampshire and the country,” said Shaheen. “Today, the President signed a bipartisan energy efficiency bill into law that creates jobs, saves consumers money, and reduces pollution. It’s always tough to convince Washington to not play politics with a good idea. But persistence has paid-off and this legislation is a small but significant victory over legislative gridlock. Much more work on energy efficiency needs to be done and getting this legislation over the finish line demonstrates that there’s broad support in Washington for job-creating efficiency legislation. I will continue to reach across the aisle to pass more common-sense energy efficiency bills because it’s good for our economy and it’s good for our environment.”

The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 (S.535) includes three simple but effective provisions that have been scored by the Congressional Budget Office to be budget neutral. Title I establishes a voluntary, market-driven approach to aligning the interests of commercial building owners and their tenants to reduce energy consumption.  Title II exempts certain electric resistance water heaters used for demand response from pending Department of Energy regulation. Title III requires that federally-leased buildings without Energy Star labels benchmark and disclose their energy usage data, where practical.

Text of the legislation can be found here.

In March, Senators Shaheen and Portman introduced their larger energy efficiency bill, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. Earlier today, Senator Shaheen testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the merits of this legislation. You can watch that testimony here.