Ohio Companies Join National Effort, Send Letter to Senate Leadership Urging Swift Passage of Senator Portman's Energy Efficiency Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Companies employing tens of thousands of Ohioans have joined other industry leaders and energy advocates in sending a letter to Senate leaders urging them to take up and support S. 1000, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESIC), authored by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). ESIC cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 18-3 earlier this year with strong bipartisan support and awaits floor consideration in the Senate.

“The private sector, from small contractors to large manufacturers, is looking for investment opportunities suited to today’s fast changing global economy,” the letter says. “We believe that the energy efficiency bills reported this Congress by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee offer a pathway to removing some of the financial and regulatory barriers that currently prevent increased private sector investment in energy efficiency.”

Ohio job-creators are supporting the bipartisan energy efficiency strategy because it would create private sector jobs, make our economy more competitive, and start addressing our energy needs. The legislation contains a broad package of low-cost tools that would reduce barriers for businesses, homeowners and consumers and save them money. Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest approach available to improving our nation’s energy infrastructure and our economy’s energy independence.

“I’m really pleased to see momentum gathering for our bipartisan effort to advance energy efficiency,” Portman said. “When Washington makes it easier for American companies to utilize energy efficient tools, they can reduce costs, enabling them to use the savings to expand operations, hire new workers, and become more competitive globally. The faster we get this bill through the Senate, the faster businesses can take advantage of these cost saving measures and create jobs.”

Businesses included on the letter with strong impacts on the Ohio economy include Owens-Corning, Whirlpool, Best Buy, Masco, Johnson Controls, Siemens, and BASF. Together these businesses employ more than 30,000 Ohioans.

The Portman-Shaheen bill targets efficiencies at relatively low cost. The legislation embraces a bipartisan approach that includes many widely supported measures to enable private investment.   The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2011 has been endorsed by more than 100 businesses, trade associations and advocacy groups.  The legislation will help make the U.S. more competitive globally and reduce our dependence on imported sources of energy at a critical time. 

A copy of the letter is included below.

September 08, 2011

The Honorable Harry Reid

Majority Leader

The Honorable Mitch McConnell

Minority Leader

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Leaders Reid and McConnell:

 

The purpose of this letter is to request that the Senate act on stand-alone energy efficiency legislation when it returns to legislative business in September. Unlike other energy policy proposals pending in Congress, legislation focused on increasing the energy efficiency of buildings has demonstrated bi-partisan support and will result in immediate U.S. job creation without undue cost to the U.S. Treasury or unreasonable regulatory burden to American job creators.

The private sector, from small contractors to large manufacturers, is looking for investment opportunities suited to today’s fast changing global economy. Making buildings more energy efficient cuts costs, offers market beating investment returns, and protects companies from volatile energy prices. Removing barriers to building efficiency can unlock job-creating business investment. As manufacturers and suppliers of components and technologies that have made documented improvements in residential and commercial buildings, we believe that the energy efficiency bills reported this Congress by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee offer a pathway to removing some of the financial and regulatory barriers that currently prevent increased private sector investment in energy efficiency.

Given the clear cut benefits of policies directed specifically at building energy efficiency, we strongly urge you to proceed to debate on those policy measures and consider other energy supply policy proposals on a separate track.

Sincerely,

A.O. Smith Corporation
Bayer
BASF Corporation
Best Buy Corporation
Danfoss
EnerNOC
eMeter
Honeywell
Intel
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Johns Manville
Knauf Insulation
Masco Corporation
Owens Corning
Siemens
Tendril
Trane
United Technologies Corporation
Whirlpool
Infineon Technologies