[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1375 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1375

 To promote energy conservation investments in Federal facilities, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 5, 1997

  Mr. Kohl (for himself, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Bumpers, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
 Bingaman, and Mr. Jeffords) introduced the following bill; which was 
    read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To promote energy conservation investments in Federal facilities, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Energy Bank Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) energy conservation is a cornerstone of national energy 
        security policy;
            (2) the Federal Government is the largest consumer of 
        energy in the economy of the United States;
            (3) many opportunities exist for significant energy cost 
        savings within the Federal Government; and
            (4) to achieve the energy savings required by Executive 
        order, the Federal Government must make significant investments 
        in energy savings systems and products, including energy 
        management control systems.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to promote energy 
conservation investments in Federal facilities.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Agency.--The term ``agency'' means--
                    (A) an Executive agency (as defined in section 105 
                of title 5, United States Code, except that the term 
                also includes the United States Postal Service);
                    (B) Congress and any other entity in the 
                legislative branch; and
                    (C) a court and any other entity in the judicial 
                branch.
            (2) Bank.--The term ``Bank'' means the Federal Energy Bank 
        established by section 4.
            (3) Energy efficiency project.--The term ``energy 
        efficiency project'' means a project that assists an agency in 
        meeting or exceeding the energy efficiency goals stated in--
                    (A) part 3 of title V of the National Energy 
                Conservation Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 8251 et seq.);
                    (B) subtitle F of title I of the Energy Policy Act 
                of 1992; and
                    (C) applicable Executive orders, including 
                Executive Order Nos. 12759 and 12902.
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Energy.
            (5) Total utility payments.--The term ``total utility 
        payments'' means payments made to supply electricity, natural 
        gas, and any other form of energy to provide the heating, 
        ventilation, and air conditioning, lighting, and other energy 
        needs of an agency facility.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF BANK.

    (a) In General.--There is established in the Treasury of the United 
States a trust fund to be known as the ``Federal Energy Bank'', 
consisting of--
            (1) such amounts as are appropriated to the Bank under 
        section 8;
            (2) such amounts as are transferred to the Bank under 
        subsection (b);
            (3) such amounts as are repaid to the Bank under section 
        5(b)(4); and
            (4) any interest earned on investment of amounts in the 
        Bank under subsection (c).
    (b) Transfers to Bank.--
            (1) In general.--At the beginning of each of fiscal years 
        1999, 2000, and 2001, each agency shall transfer to the 
        Secretary of the Treasury, for deposit in the Bank, an amount 
        equal to 5 percent of the total utility payments paid by the 
        agency in the preceding fiscal year.
            (2) Utilities paid for as part of rental payments.--The 
        Secretary shall by regulation establish a formula by which the 
        appropriate portion of a rental payment that covers the cost of 
        utilities shall be considered to be a utility payment for the 
        purposes of paragraph (1).
    (c) Investment of Funds.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall 
invest such portion of funds in the Bank as is not, in the Secretary's 
judgment, required to meet current withdrawals. Investments may be made 
only in interest-bearing obligations of the United States.

SEC. 5. LOANS FROM THE BANK.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer from 
the Bank to the Secretary such amounts as are appropriated to carry out 
the loan program under subsection (b).
    (b) Loan Program.--
            (1) In general.--In accordance with section 6, the 
        Secretary shall establish a program to loan amounts from the 
        Bank to any agency that submits an application satisfactory to 
        the Secretary in order to finance an energy efficiency project.
            (2) Performance contracting funding.--To the extent 
        practicable, an agency shall not submit a project for which 
        performance contracting funding is available.
            (3) Purposes of loan.--
                    (A) In general.--A loan under this section may be 
                made to pay the costs of--
                            (i) an energy efficiency project; or
                            (ii) development and administration of a 
                        performance contract.
                    (B) Limitation.--An agency may use not more than 15 
                percent of the amount of a loan under subparagraph 
                (A)(i) to pay the costs of administration and proposal 
                development (including data collection and energy 
                surveys).
            (4) Repayments.--
                    (A) In general.--An agency shall repay to the Bank 
                the principal amount of the energy efficiency project 
                loan plus interest at a rate determined by the 
                President, in consultation with the Secretary and the 
                Secretary of the Treasury.
                    (B) Waiver.--The Secretary may waive the 
                requirement of subparagraph (A) if the Secretary 
                determines that payment of interest by an agency is not 
                required to sustain the needs of the Bank in making 
                energy efficiency project loans.
            (5) Agency energy budgets.--Until a loan is repaid, an 
        agency budget submitted to Congress for a fiscal year shall not 
        be reduced by the value of energy savings accrued as a result 
        of the energy conservation measure implemented with funds from 
        the Bank.
            (6) Availability of funds.--An agency shall not rescind or 
        reprogram funds made available by this Act. Funds loaned to an 
        agency shall be retained by the agency until expended, without 
        regard to fiscal year limitation.

SEC. 6. SELECTION CRITERIA.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish criteria for the 
selection of energy efficiency projects to be awarded loans in 
accordance with subsection (b).
    (b) Selection Criteria.--The Secretary may make loans only for 
energy efficiency projects that--
            (1) are technically feasible;
            (2) are determined to be cost-effective using life cycle 
        cost methods established by the Secretary by regulation;
            (3) include a measurement and management component to--
                    (A) commission energy savings for new Federal 
                facilities; and
                    (B) monitor and improve energy efficiency 
                management at existing Federal facilities; and
            (4) have a project payback period of 3 years or less.

SEC. 7. REPORTS AND AUDITS.

    (a) Reports to the Secretary.--Not later than 1 year after the 
installation of an energy efficiency project that has a total cost of 
more than $1,000,000, and each year thereafter, an agency shall submit 
to the Secretary a report that--
            (1) states whether the project meets or fails to meet the 
        energy savings projections for the project; and
            (2) for each project that fails to meet the savings 
        projections, states the reasons for the failure and describes 
        proposed remedies.
    (b) Audits.--The Secretary may audit any energy efficiency project 
financed with funding from the Bank to assess the project's 
performance.
    (c) Reports to Congress.--At the end of each fiscal year, the 
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the operations of the 
Bank, including a statement of the total receipts into the Bank, and 
the total expenditures from the Bank to each agency.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary 
to carry out this Act.
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