Senate Energy Legislation

In October, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) reported out a climate bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009, or S. 1733, with a vote of 11-1, despite a Republican boycott of the vote. The bill text can be found on the Web site .

This bill is likely to be combined with the ACELA bill and energy tax legislation being developed by the Senate Finance Committee before being brought to the Senate floor. These tax provisions will likely build upon the Expanding Building Efficiency Incentives Act of 2009 (S.1637) and Expanding Industrial Energy Efficiency Incentives Act of 2009 (S. 1639) introduced by Senators Bingaman, Snowe, and Feinstein (see description here). Exactly when these bills will be considered by the full Senate is unclear, but it will most likely be in early 2010 after action is completed on federal healthcare legislation. 

ACELA Resources (Energy and Natural Resource Committee)
In addition, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee reported out the American Clean Energy Leadership Act on June 17, 2009. This bill serves as a counterpart to the energy provisions in H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, the combined climate and energy bill passed by the House. The Senate bill addresses a number of important energy efficiency issues, but does not incorporate climate legislation.

For a discussion of the major topic areas in both bills, click here.

ACEEE estimates that 70% of the 2020 energy savings in the Senate bill will come from buildings, including a major building retrofit program, improvements to building codes, and a variety of other buildings provisions. Of the remaining savings, 18% are from new minimum efficiency standards on appliances and 12% from industrial programs.

• ACEEE's Analysis of Savings from ACELA
• Description of Key Energy Efficiency Provisions in ACELA
• Methodology Used in ACEEE's Analysis

Official Documents:

• Legislative Texts of ACELA
• Senate ENR Committee Press Release on ACELA

The Senate bill also includes a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that includes energy efficiency, but ACEEE credits no savings to this part of the bill as the maximum level of efficiency in this provision (4% of electricity sales by 2020) is less than business-as-usual when it comes to electricity efficiency and the bill permits states without efficiency programs to purchase efficiency credits from states that save more than 4% with efficiency. Nineteen states are currently on track to reduce nationwide electricity use by about 5% by 2020. Savings from the bill could be much improved by strengthening the combined efficiency and renewable electricity standard to require utilities to reduce electricity demand by 10% by 2020. An improved electricity standard with 10% efficiency would result in an extra $66 billion in cumulative consumer savings by 2030—potential savings that ACELA is currently leaving on the table.

For more information contact:
Steven Nadel, Executive Director
Suzanne Watson, Policy Director

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