On September 30, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a 32-20 vote on comprehensive energy legislation titled The North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015. Three Democrats—Representatives Green (Texas), Schrader (Ore.) and McNerney (Calif.)—joined the Republicans on the committee in voting for the bill. The bill contained several provisions supported by APGA. First, the bill includes a provision to repeal the ban on the use of fossil fuels in federal buildings by 2030—also known as Section 433 of the Energy Independence and Security Act. APGA has worked towards the repeal of this provision for several years. The bill also includes the Blackburn-Schrader energy codes legislation that addresses the manner in which model building energy codes are developed. Specifically, this legislation is intended to increase transparency, ensure product neutrality and guarantee that affordability for both residential and commercial buildings is preserved. This legislation reinforces the Department of Energy’s (DOE) role as a technical advisor and prohibits DOE from lobbying the code process on behalf of certain products and technologies. Lastly, the bill includes language that delays DOE’s furnace rule until July 2016 to allow stakeholders the opportunity to continue negotiations. On the issue of LNG export, the bill also included a provision requiring DOE to act within 30 days on an LNG export application once the environmental review is completed.
In advance of the mark-up, APGA joined a September 29 letter signed by the American Gas Association, Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association and several other groups expressing support for the legislation and specifically for the Blackburn-Schrader language that addresses energy codes. In the letter, the groups communicate that in terms of the development of model building codes, “DOE has increasingly advocated for a prescriptive approach that favors certain products and technologies and pursued aggressive and expensive requirements” and that this has resulted in a code that is inflexible, very costly and unusable for many states.” The letter further states that “Consumers deserve a reasonable return on their investment when it comes to required energy efficiency improvements.”
At this point, leadership is working to bring the bill to the House floor as early as the week of October 5. Things are moving slower in the Senate in terms of an energy bill and at this point it is very unclear whether a bill will get to the President and if he will sign or veto it. For questions on this article, please contact Dave Schryver of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at
dschryver@apga.org.