Pallone: House Republicans Continue Assault on Energy Affordability

Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House floor today in opposition to H.R. 4626, which undermines the appliance energy conservation standards program at the Department of Energy that has saved American households money and reduced peak energy demand:

Thank you Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. 

Madam Speaker, we all know that American families are struggling to make ends meet. President Trump promised to cut energy bills in half in his first year, but that has not happened. In fact, electricity prices are up by 13 percent across the nation, and 80 million Americans are struggling to pay their utility bills. These increases did not just happen. They are a direct result of the Trump Administration’s disastrous policies – policies that have been rubber stamped by House Republicans. And it's bad enough that Trump and Congressional Republicans have ignored the affordability crisis and have instead done everything they can to help out their rich and big corporate interest buddies. But House Republicans are bringing up a bill today that will actually increase your monthly energy bill and make the appliances in your home more expensive to operate. It’s hard to imagine being more out of touch with the needs of everyday Americans.

First I have to mention that H.R. 4626 would make the appliances in your home more expensive to operate, sending your already high electricity bill even higher.

Like all other appliance-related debates, this bill is just another way to kill floor time for Republicans who seem to only be able to garner enough Republican votes for bills to help their corporate polluter friends.

This bill guts the appliance energy conservation standards program at the Department of Energy. This program is credited with helping American households save $6,000 on their energy bills over the last decade. The standards are projected to help reduce peak demand by 32 gigawatts by 2040. In a world where data centers are popping up all over the country, driving up costs and demand, we can’t ignore the benefits from appliance efficiency.

Instead of recognizing energy efficiency as a helpful tool against rising costs and increasing electricity demand, House Republicans have made it the enemy. This bill gives the Trump Administration the power to eliminate efficiency standards, and it even prevents states from setting their own standards when the federal government fails to act. It creates arbitrary thresholds for new efficiency standards and eliminates the system of periodic reviews to examine if more savings are possible for certain products. 

So together, these changes to the program will ensure that new energy efficiency standards get caught in a confusing and arbitrary process that delays finalization of new efficiency standards and allows for the rollback of existing standards. Basically, this bill guts the program and makes it unworkable.

The Department of Energy, Mr. Speaker, already has a robust process for finalizing energy efficiency standards. New standards must be technologically feasible and economically justified. The current process already has the buy-in and participation from a wide range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates, manufacturers, and energy efficiency advocates. In fact, many of the efficiency standards that were finalized over the last few years are the result of a consensus agreement between these parties.

But rather than recognizing that the current process is successful at bringing everyone to the table, House Republicans have chosen to villainize it. Rather than celebrating the savings that Americans see as a result of efficiency standards, House Republicans mislead the public by misrepresenting how the standards work and how consumers save money. 

With this bill, House Republicans are making the affordability crisis worse. They are gutting a successful and established program that saves Americans money. So I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

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