House Energy Subcommittee markup of 10 efficient energy, cybersecurity bills spurs leadership remarks

A series of 10 energy bills passed markup at a meeting of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee this week, in an effort to make the U.S. energy infrastructure more efficient, more secure, and more diversely operated.

“Making the homes and buildings in our communities more energy efficient is incredibly important for several reasons,” Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said. “Efficiency work supports thousands of good-paying jobs at small businesses in every state. Moreover, weatherizing homes and greening our public buildings saves money and helps address climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas pollution emitted into the air.”

First among them was H.R. 2088, which seeks to reauthorize and increase funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, which provides federal grants to local, state, Native American and territorial governments for efforts to reduce energy usage and fossil fuel emissions, as well as efficiency upgrades. The bill amends the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Pallone highlighted its work under previous iterations, where it used funds to purchase zero-emission fleet vehicles, install LED street lights and similar efforts.

Ranking Member Fred Upton (R-MI), however, felt the bill required more scrutiny and work, and was concerned with its high spending.

“H.R. 2088 alone authorizes $3.5 billion per year in new energy efficiency grant authority to DOE, an amount that surpasses the one-time funding by the Obama Administration in the Recovery Act,” Upton said. “That’s a lot of potential spending and, however well-intentioned, it raises a number of concerns about whether that is the best way to expand energy efficiency or alternative fuel projects in communities. We should have taken more time before moving this to markup.”

The second bill addressed in the meeting was H.R. 2041, the Weatherization Enhancement and Local Energy Efficiency Investment and Accountability Act. It would reauthorize the weatherization assistance program, which the Department of Energy (DOE) uses to reduce energy costs for low-income households and update their efficiency. The bill would increase funding to $350 million, as well as other updates. Similarly, this was followed by H.R. 2119, which would amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to reauthorize DOE grants for public building energy efficiency upgrades.

H.R. 1315 — the Blue Collar to Green Collar Jobs Development Act of 2019 — focused on energy sector jobs. It would amend title II of the DOE Organization Act to reauthorize an affiliated office and direct Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to create a nationwide energy industry jobs program and, in Pallone’s estimation, work to bridge diversity gaps in the workforce.

“The bill establishes a comprehensive, nationwide program at DOE to improve education and training for jobs in energy-related industries,” Pallone said. “The legislation provides DOE new authority to offer direct assistance to schools, workforce development boards, and labor organizations. The bill also establishes a grant program to provide funds to businesses to pay employees who are receiving training to work in the renewable energy, energy efficiency or grid modernization sectors.”

Upton said there had been differences in opinion on the bill, but that Republican and Democrat staffs have been working to address those differences on it.

There appeared to be no such differences in either H.R. 2665 — the Smart Energy and Water Efficiency Act — or H.R. 2044 — the Smart Building Acceleration Act — which both carried over from last Congress. The former would direct the Secretary of Energy to create a smart energy and water efficiency program, while the latter would accelerate smart building development. Conservation and energy saving were their goals.

The last four bills considered by the subcommittee highlighted the country’s cybersecurity efforts.

The first of these was H.R. 359, or the Enhancing Grid Security through Public-Private Partnerships Act. As the name implies, it would provide funds for DOE programs to address physical and cyber security at electric utilities to protect the greater grid.

“We all know cybersecurity threats to our energy infrastructure are a real and growing,” Upton said. “As Secretary Perry has noted, ‘the nation’s top one-hundred pipelines alone supply nearly eighty-four percent of the nation’s energy, pipelines represent a critical part of North America’s energy backbone.’”

H.R. 360 is known as the Cyber Sense Act of 2019, which requires the creation of a voluntary program at the DOE, to test cybersecurity around products and technologies intended for the bulk-power system.

Additionally, H.R. 362 — the Energy Emergency Leadership Act — would amend the DOE Organization Act to adjust which functions are assigned to Assistant Secretaries, creating a new such position with power over energy emergency and security functions in energy supply, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Upton said that this would aid DOE emergency response.

The final bill addressed was H.R. 370, the Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity Preparedness Act, which would require the Secretary of Energy to create a program regarding physical and cybersecurity procedures for pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities. It was something Pallone noted as “modest but critically important” for security and reliability, and Upton called essential.

“I am pleased to see that many of these bills reflect close, bi-partisan work—a hallmark of this Subcommittee’s successful policy-making practices,” Upton said. “The energy cybersecurity bills, for example, especially reflect this practice. We moved these four bills through Committee last Congress. And it remains critical that we keep working to get them through the House and enacted into law.”