NEMA CEO Endorses Expedited Energy-Efficiency Rulemaking Authority In House Testimony

National Electrical Manufacturers Assn. (NEMA) President and Chief Executive Officer Evan Gaddis recommended in earlier May to the U. S. House of Representatives’ Committee of Energy and Commerce’s Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) be amended to include procedures whereby consensus agreements can be quickly acted upon by the Dept. of Energy (DOE). Doing so would expedite implementation of energy-efficiency regulations, thereby accelerating energy savings for the entire nation.

“It is not practical to expect that Congress should have to legislate each time a consensus agreement is reached,” Gaddis said. “We support changes to EPCA to permit stakeholders to submit, through a petition process, their consensus agreement, and for the Department of Energy to expeditiously consider and act upon it.”

Gaddis strongly endorsed the enactment of two pending consensus agreements addressing electric motors and incandescent reflector lamps, and reiterated NEMA’s support for express federal pre-emption of state laws and regulations respecting energy efficiency standards, testing, and information disclosure for covered products.

He reiterated NEMA’s support for a robust national energy-conservation program, noting that resources and budgets for the Codes and Standards program must be adequate to perform the tasks, workload, and timelines assigned by statute.

The Department of Energy is currently scheduled to complete a final rule on possible revisions to the existing standard for integral 1- to 200-hp motors by June 2011, with a likely effective date of 2014. The consensus recommendations would accelerate this timetable by three years to achieve savings as early as 2011, and would greatly increase the scope of federally-covered products.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), which partnered with NEMA in this consensus agreement, estimated the savings attributable to these joint recommendations to be 8 billion kilowatt hours by 2030, with a net energy savings to consumers of almost $500 million.

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