Green on the Hill: New industrial energy efficiency programs proposed

Electronic waste targeted

By Stephen Barlas

August 1, 2011

A Senate bill proposing a host of new industrial energy efficiency programs is running into some resistance.

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2011 (S. 1000) includes a number of new programs that would be housed at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These include a building retrofit financing program ($400 million, via a credit support program); energy efficiency technologies assessments; future of industry program ($500,000 per year, to be granted to up to 10 research centers); sustainable manufacturing initiative; and state partnership industrial energy efficiency revolving loan program ($700 million revolving fund). Some of these programs have been proposed in prior years but failed to gain congressional approval.

The bill is a bipartisan effort, introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, so there is some bipartisan support for the bill, which is the good news. Hearings were held in the Senate Energy Committee in June.

Support for the bill from Republicans, the Obama administration, and even environmental groups has been middling, however. Kathleen Hogan, deputy assistant secretary, DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), told the Senate Energy Committee that her department is still reviewing the bill and doesn't yet have a position on it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ark., the top GOPer on the committee, asked Hogan whether the DOE already has authority from previous laws for some of the programs the proposed bill would authorize. Hogan fell back on her "still reviewing" stance.

But when Murkowski asked the same question of Kateri Callahan, president of Alliance to Save Energy, a respected energy efficiency group, Callahan acknowledged that some of what is in the proposed bill already has been authorized. She noted that the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) authorized some programs, such as a Web-based energy database that has never been created.

In its original form, the EISA contained some new industrial energy efficiency programs; however, they were eliminated by the time the bill passed Congress that year. Subsequently, in the last session of Congress in 2009-2010, other bills were introduced with some of the provisions contained in S. 1000; those bills never passed either. The chances for congressional passage of S. 1000 in the 2010 - 2011 session probably are slim, considering Murkowski's skepticism and the fact that no companion bill was introduced in the Republican-controlled U.S. House.

Electronics Recycling Bills Introduced

Electronics recycling advocates are resurrecting a campaign to pass legislation that would advance efforts to reduce the environmental impact of discarded electronic devices. The Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act (H.R. 2396) passed in the House in 2010 by a voice vote, then was passed in Senate committee, but never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.

The bill would do three things: (1) authorize the EPA to award grants to reduce the environmental impact of discarded electronic devices and promote the recycling of these devices through R&D projects; (2) set up a study on the barriers to recycling of discarded electronic devices; and (3) authorize the EPA to award grants to colleges and universities for curriculum development in the areas of recycling electronic devices and enabling environmentally friendly designs.

The bill's author, Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., said, "Recycling electronic waste is a win-win for our economy and our environment. It reduces the environmental impact of high-tech manufacturing, reduces cost, and makes U.S. companies less dependent on foreign suppliers of minerals and other materials."

Though the bill almost made it through Congress last year, its prospects would appear to be dim in 2011. Barbara Kyle, national coordinator, Electronics TakeBack Coalition, a group that includes environmental organizations, said she has not heard yet whether the House Science Committee will hold hearings on the bill. "I think it will depend on whether there is support from the business community for this," Kyle said. Sources in the House say the Sarbanes bill faces tough legislative headwinds, given both Republican and Democratic antipathy toward new federal spending.

Another electronics recycling bill also faces long legislative odds: the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (H.R. 2284). It establishes a new category of restricted electronic waste which could not be exported to developing nations. The bill had been offered in past Congress sessions, but unlike the Sarbanes bill, which moved forward in the last Congress, this bill never left the committee it was referred to. There is little reason to believe it will do any better in this session of Congress.