EPS Improvement Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 511, the ``Power and Security Systems Act of 2017, which will revise energy conservation standards for devices operating in standby mode.

In the early 1970s, I recall, as many of my colleagues do, the impact to our nation's economy when OPEC nations withheld oil from the United States causing one of the greatest peace-time energy shortages in United States history.

One of the remedial steps taken by the Carter Administration was the promulgation of regulations that required large appliances and equipment that used electricity to default to a power down mode when not in use.

Today, we take for granted that machines power down when not in use, but this one change in energy policy over the last 4o years has saved taxpayers, which includes businesses and private homes, billions of dollars in energy costs.

This was only one policy solution that was used to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil so that energy could go to vital services like fuel for electricity generation, gasoline, heating fuels, and diesel oil.

H.R. 511, the bill before us would extend energy conservation to digital technology that can operate in standby mode.

Most digital device technology manufactures already provide sleep mode on their devices to assist their users in conserving power on cellphones, smartphones, MP3 players, e-book readers, as well as desktop and laptop computers.

Today, 68 percent of U.S. adults own a smartphone, up from 35 percent in 2011, and tablet computer ownership has edged up to 45 percent among adults, according to newly released survey data from the Pew Research Center.

Considering not just smartphones, but all types of mobile phones, Pew notes that cellphones continue to top of the list.

Roughly nine-in-ten American adults or 92 percent own a mobile phone of some kind.

Although these mobile devices are ubiquitous today, the share of adults who own one has risen substantially since 2004.

Smartphone ownership is nearing the saturation point with some groups: 1. 86 percent of those ages 18-29; 2. 83 percent of those ages 30-49; and 3. 87 percent of those living in households earning $75,000 and up annually own smartphones.

These facts highlight the importance of energy conservation for mobile communication users.

The battery life for these devices is limited and without power they are of no use to the user.

This bill will help users remain connected as long as possible because the energy consumption on their cellphones and other digital devices will be minimized when they are not in use.

Energy conservation will also assist consumers during times when power outages may occur due to weather or other electricity disruption.

The longer power life for cellphones will benefit consumers by reducing the amount of electricity needed to recharge their personal devices.

This bill will also benefit businesses that often have many computers that when in use can consume electricity if left on after business hours--especially over weekends.

For these reasons, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 511.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 518) to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to exclude power supply circuits, drivers, and devices designed to be connected to, and power, light-emitting diodes or organic light-emitting diodes providing illumination from energy conservation standards for external power supplies, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise certainly in support of H.R. 518.

Regulations are based on the state of technology at the time that they are developed and may have the unintended consequences of hindering new advances in products. Such has been the case with the Department of Energy's efficiency standards for external power suppliers, EPS. As the regs on the books now stand, it is not legally possible to make certain types of light -emitting diode--LED--devices, as well as some kinds of ceiling fans.

So this bill, H.R. 518, the EPS Improvement Act, provides a carefully tailored solution to the problem. And I want to thank two Members, Republican and Democrat, Mr. Guthrie and Ms. DeGette, for their good work on behalf of both the manufacturers, as well as the users, of these products.

The bill carves out an exception for these devices while giving DOE the option of setting separate efficiency standards that are more suited to them.

This bill has been thoroughly vetted--yes, it has. It was included in last year's energy package. And although that bill didn't make it to the finish line for unrelated reasons, language virtually identical to that in H.R. 518 enjoyed very strong bipartisan and certain bicameral support.

In addition, the bill passed the House on suspension last year as well, but failed to make it on the Senate calendar.

For the sake of the manufacturing jobs that are associated with these products as well as the consumers and small businesses that rely on them, I would urge all of my colleagues to support and vote for H.R. 518.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers on this side of the aisle either.

I would urge my colleagues on both sides to again vote for this bill. Let's hope that the Senate can get it on their plate and get it to the President for him to sign into law.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 511) to provide for consideration of the extension under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of nonapplication of No-Load Mode energy efficiency standards to certain security

or life safety alarms or surveillance systems, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 511. I would note that this is our colleague Mr. Welch's bill that moved through the regular process through the Committee on Energy and Commerce last year. It received extensive bipartisan support. I am again glad to move this bill today.

External power supplies, EPS, are used with a wide variety of devices, and we have learned from experience that the Federal energy efficiency standards for them are not compatible with some of these applications. In particular, we need an exemption from these rules for security and life safety alarms and surveillance systems. This bill, H.R. 511, the Power And Security Systems (PASS) Act, provides a targeted exemption that allows these critical systems to stay on the market.

Devices like home security alarms or fire detection systems need to be on 24/7, but the 2007 energy law requiring energy efficiency standards for external power supplies did not allow for this. Subsequent legislation created an exemption for external power supplies used with these always-on devices. This exemption will end on July 1 of this year. This bill extends that exemption until 2023.

The result of the bill would be that these important security systems will continue to be available, preserving the jobs of those who make them and certainly the safety of those who use them. As with H.R. 518, the other external power supply bill that we are addressing today, these provisions enjoyed strong bipartisan and bicameral support when they were added to last year's energy bill. They also passed under suspension last year.

I urge my colleagues to once again vote ``yes'' on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I just again urge my colleagues to support this good bipartisan bill. I appreciate the kind words always by Mr. Welch. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today to urge the passage of H.R. 518, the EPS Improvement Act.

Last session of Congress, I cosponsored this bill with our former colleague Congresswoman Ellmers, and this year, Representatives Guthrie, Matsui, and Dent are joining me in this effort to strengthen the standards used to keep LED lighting safe and efficient.

By ensuring that our country's energy conservation standards are up to date with the latest developments in high-tech lighting, we can remove obstacles to innovation without sacrificing safety. And as we heard from the chairman, if there has ever been a bill in Congress that was vetted, it was this one.

We have been working on this bill for some years now, and, frankly, what it is doing is it is truly addressing unintended consequences that happened due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That act defined external power supplies in a way that just simply did not anticipate the rapid growth and use of LED and OLED light sources during the decade that followed.

Now, these lights are really energy efficient. They are up to 80 percent more efficient than traditional lights like fluorescent and incandescent lights, and 90 percent of the energy in LEDs is committed to illumination, while only 5 percent is heat; so it is no wonder they have become so popular in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, in the 2005 act, the standards did not allow for these types of lighting as their use continues to constitute an ever-growing share of our energy consumption.

What this bill does is it clarifies the definition of ``external power supplies'' and it amends the conditions under which the Energy Department can undertake a rulemaking process in the future. The bill will facilitate the continued growth of LED lighting, and it will help lower energy prices for businesses and households both in my home State of Colorado and across America.

Clean energy truly is the future. It can be safe, efficient, and affordable for all when it is properly regulated, and that is exactly what this legislation does.

I urge everybody to support this act, and I hope that the Senate will pass it this year. We are getting a good, early start.

Mr. Speaker, I have no one else to speak on this bill, so I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank my colleagues for their support, the former chairman of the committee and now chair of the Subcommittee on Energy. He is a very important person over there, and there are no words I could convey that would meet the reputation of Mr. Upton. I thank him and Ms. DeGette very much.

They have said a lot of the specific content of this bill. This is a situation where Congress passed a good law. There was a provision in it that needed to be corrected, and, lo and behold, Congress is correcting that provision. It is about these security devices that obviously can't operate on no-power mode. They have got to be on. When the bad guys come in, we have got to be watching. That is really what this is all about.

It is a combination of the bipartisan commitment that we have had to energy efficiency, especially last year. I do give Mr. Upton a lot of credit for this. We have had a lot of debates in this Congress about climate change, about the science, and aside from--we don't need to get into that--to embrace as we have in a bipartisan way, there are enormous benefits to efficiency every single place we can find it.

This efficiency bill originally was applying to all these devices to put them in no-load mode. That was cutting down on use of electricity. It was cutting down on carbon emissions. It was saving people money. But the no-load obviously couldn't apply to security devices.

Last year, Mr. Pompeo, when he was a Congressman, supported this, and now that he is going to be our leader in the CIA, he knows you have got to keep that watching device on when the bad guys are lurking around.

We are back this year. One of our first bills to be passed and hopefully signed by the President is the extension of the correction that we made sometime ago. I am delighted to be here with my colleagues in support of this legislation, getting this House of Representatives off to a constructive start.