March 12, 2015

Manchin Supports Renewed Effort to Establish Commonsense National Energy Policies

Senator cosponsors bipartisan legislation to create jobs, save consumers money, and protect the environment

Senator Joe Manchin today cosponsored commonsense legislation that moves America toward a national energy efficiency strategy. Senator Manchin remains a strong supporter of this updated version of the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESIC), which was originally introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH). The legislation saves consumers money, creates jobs and reduces pollution. It has received widespread support from Democrats and Republicans as well as industry leaders, energy-efficiency advocates and environmental stakeholders.

“It is past time our nation develops a reasonable and realistic clean energy policy that utilizes all our domestic resources to produce affordable and reliable power,” Senator Manchin said. “I am proud to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation that would create nearly 200,000 jobs and keep hard-earned dollars in consumers’ pockets, while also reducing carbon emissions. The bill strikes that important balance between promoting economic growth and addressing environmental concerns, and is a huge step toward generating American energy cleaner and more efficiently through commercially-available technologies. I hope members of Congress from both sides of the aisle swiftly vote this commonsense bill into law.”

The legislation uses a variety of low-cost tools to help energy users become more efficient while making the country’s largest energy user – the federal government – reduce its energy use through the use of energy-efficient technology. The deficit neutral bill incentivizes the use of efficiency technologies that are commercially available today, can be widely deployed across the country, and quickly pay for themselves through energy savings. The reintroduced bill incorporates an additional ten bipartisan amendments that will help the United States transition to a more energy-efficient economy while driving economic growth and private sector job creation.

A study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates that this bill will create more than 190,000 jobs, save consumers $16.2 billion a year, and cut CO2 emissions and other air pollutants by the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road – all by 2030.

In addition to Senators Manchin, Shaheen and Portman, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). 

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