An energy bill that Congress can and should pass

In last week's State of the Union address, President Obama issued a call to action to Congress to bring him an energy efficiency bill that will help manufacturers eliminate energy waste and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. He promised energy savings of $100 billion over the next decade, with less pollution, more manufacturing, and more jobs - if Congress can enact the right legislation.

What legislation could deliver these benefits?

Let me start by saying that the following ideas all embody what I believe to be the most effective role for government to play in bolstering this industry and creating jobs - creating an environment of enablement, as opposed to purely investment. Tax credits to encourage energy efficiency programs will absolutely spur action. But there are a set of more lasting initiatives the federal government can advance that will encourage businesses to drive and fund these energy efficiency programs without placing burden on taxpayers.

It's clear our country has an energy problem, and both business and government have a role in fixing it. It's time for business to stop being passive when it comes to managing energy, and government can help. Here are four steps that can be taken to deliver on the promises made in the State of the Union address.

First - The federal government is the largest energy consumer in the country. It has taken some important steps to reign this in, including the recently announced Better Buildings Challenge. But the biggest change government could bring would be to apply the same principles to energy efficiency that help to educate consumers on the food that we eat and the products we purchase. A Federal mandate that all commercial buildings in the U.S. should be 'labeled' to reveal their energy efficiency would dramatically shift the discussion.

In the same way that a consumer reads the nutrition information on a box of cereal, building energy labeling would give businesses clear information about the efficiencies of the buildings they occupy, the factories they manage and the stores they own. This information would spur tenants to make informed decisions about where to rent, create competition in the building management community to use energy efficiency as a selling point, and drive public pressure to bring low efficiency buildings up to standard. The private sector should develop the measurement and verification standards, but the federal government can push this forward with a building energy labeling mandate.

Second - As the president discussed in his State of the Union, there are trillions of dollars of profits earned by U.S. businesses locked up in foreign countries. Repatriating those dollars would have a major impact on our economy, but the debate over how to do that effectively has raged for years and led to inaction. Here's a simple idea: Allow businesses to repatriate dollars with zero tax impact, if those dollars are used for energy efficiency programs here in the U.S.

If energy efficiency is a national priority, as the president suggested, let's treat it that way. Let's use dollars which are not serving U.S. interests at all by being locked up overseas to drive this national priority here at home. This would bring billions of dollars back to the U.S. - and ensure that those dollars go immediately into programs that help businesses save energy, and create tens of thousands of green jobs. This initiative would likely only represent a fraction of the trillions of dollars currently locked up overseas, so the debate over how to tax the rest of those dollars back can continue. But this simple step would have an immediate impact on the U.S. economy, energy efficiency and our energy independence.

Third - The Senate needs to pick up and pass Shaheen-Portman, and the House of Representatives should pass the energy efficiency bill being
advanced by Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H). The bodies should then reconcile those bills and put the resulting bill on the president's desk. These initiatives, which already have bi-partisan support, would strengthen building codes, providing financing options for manufacturers, and require the federal government to improve its own energy management.

Fourth - There are initiatives the administration can take that will have a major impact on green jobs and energy efficiency that don't require Congressional action. We call on the Department of Energy, led by Secretary Chu, to sponsor a new training and awareness program for states and cities on the topic of performance contracting. Performance contracting is the cornerstone of the federal government's Better Buildings Challenge, upgrading buildings and making them more energy efficient at no cost to taxpayers. Some states and cities have leveraged performance contracting as well, but education and adoption at the state and local level is low. We would volunteer to co-sponsor such a training and awareness program, and I'm sure other energy services companies would support this program as well.

These four steps - three that require congressional action and one that the administration can drive - would kick-start the U.S. economy with tens of thousands of new jobs, millions of dollars in energy savings that can be funneled to economic development, and dramatic improvements in our pollution control and energy independence.

There's a clear case to be made for energy management programs. I've seen first-hand leading companies such as Macy's saving 30 percent of their energy costs with a typical return on investment of 1 to 3 years. The rest of the business community needs to stand up and recognize the dollars being wasted by their current lack of focus on how they use energy.

The president asked for action - it's time for Congress, the administration and the private sector to work together to make it happen.

Chris Curtis is the CEO of Schneider Electric North America.

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