Testimony of ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Energy

This hearing is on nine energy efficiency bills that are potential amendments to S. 761, a bill endorsed by the full Senate Energy Committee that may soon reach the Senate floor. ACEEE strongly supports S. 761 and also supports the nine bills before us, although for one bill our support is contingent on a few modifications. In addition, I discuss several other possible amendments, most of which we support but one of which is a potential “poison pill.”

ACEEE has conducted a preliminary energy savings analysis of S. 761 and many of the potential amendments. Overall, we estimate that S. 761, together with all the amendments we support, will reduce U.S. energy use by over 15 quadrillion Btu’s over the 2014–2030 period. This is nearly as much energy as will be used by the state of Oregon over this period. Saving this much energy will benefit our economy and our environment and we urge the Senate to adopt S. 761 and the other bills I discuss, but to avoid “poison pills” that lack broad support.