[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 38 (Thursday, March 6, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2013

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                               speech of

                         HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 4, 2014

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues on the House 
Energy and Commerce Committee for their leadership and shared goal of 
promoting legislation that incentivizes stakeholders to manufacture and 
implement energy efficient technologies throughout our economy. 
Congress should always be looking for creative ways to incentivize our 
great American innovators like A.O. Smith to manufacture energy 
efficient technologies that consumers clearly want. So I commend you on 
your dedication to this effort and look forward to supporting H.R. 
2126.
   Sometimes we don't have to look too hard for ways to unleash 
American innovation and promote energy efficiency. Sometimes, we just 
have to use common sense and get the Federal Government out of the way.
   One concrete way Congress can force the government to get out of the 
way of our job creators would be to require the Department of Energy 
and the Environmental Protection Agency to recognize independent test 
results for air conditioning, furnace, boiler, heat pump and water 
heater products that are already subject to the rigors of an 
independent voluntary industry compliance program (or ``VICP'').
   Through the VICP, manufacturers of these highly efficient products 
contract with an independent, third-party laboratory to ensure their 
products comply with federal efficiency and conservation standards. 
Manufacturers spend millions to participate and run the VICP, and the 
program has been a resounding success for years.
   But the federal government won't accept VICP data for compliance 
purposes. Instead, the DOE and EPA (which manages the Energy Star 
program) force manufacturers that participate in the VICP to subject 
their products to two additional rounds of tests to satisfy agency 
standards. But to make matters worse, the DOE and EPA tests aren't any 
different than the VICP tests. Each test takes place at the same 
laboratories responsible for the VICP tests, with the same technicians 
on the same products.
   The end result: manufacturers of highly efficient air conditioning, 
furnace, boiler, heat pump and water heater products pay for three 
rounds of tests to effectuate the same result: making federal 
regulators happy.
   That, my colleagues, smacks of inefficient government bureaucracy 
that serves no purpose other than redirecting operational capital to 
satisfy the whims of the Obama Administration. We can and should do a 
better job of incentivizing manufacturers to innovate and invest in job 
creation--not to waste precious operational capital on complying with 
nonsensical bureaucratic mandates.
   I intend to eliminate this regulatory roadblock through legislation 
very similar to an amendment introduced last September by Senators 
Sessions and Pryor during debate for S. 1392. That amendment, in the 
words of Senator Sessions, would have ``require[d] the Energy 
Department, when conducting routine testing to verify product ratings, 
to rely on data submitted through voluntary, independent certification 
programs'' that satisfy a robust test of independence and transparency.

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