ACEEE NEWSLETTER

September 15, 2003

FEDERAL ENERGY BILL AWAITS CONFERENCE

On July 31st, the U.S. Senate passed an energy bill, following upon House action in April 2003. In a bizarre twist, the Senate adopted the exact same bill as it adopted in 2002, to sidestep a growing impasse and move the bill to conference. A House-Senate conference committee will be convened in September 2003 to work out differences between the House bill, the (2002) bill passed by the Senate, and the 2003 bill voted out of the Senate Energy Committee that ultimately bogged down on the Senate floor. From an energy-efficiency point of view, key provisions establish new appliance and equipment efficiency standards and new tax credits for advanced energy-saving equipment and practices. A side-by-side comparison of the different bills can be found at http://www.aceee.org/energy/0308hscomp.pdf. Energy-savings estimates from the different bills can be found at http://www.aceee.org/energy/0308sensav.pdf (Senate) and http://www.aceee.org/energy/0308hsesav.pdf (House). Additional information can be found at http://www.aceee.org/energy/legsttus.htm.

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