Members of Congress met to talk about energy efficiency standards this week but at times it felt more like a debate about who is to blame for the current state of the economy as consumers face higher electricity bills and other financial pressures.
The House Energy Subcommittee held a hearing on Tuesday to discuss rolling back Biden-era efficiency standards in homes and appliances that some homebuilder groups and utility companies oppose, claiming that the regulations will only hurt consumers by making homes more expensive to build or appliances pricier. Many states have also enacted energy efficiency regulations for buildings and appliances.
Colorado is one of a few states at the forefront of energy efficiency standards. States began investing more in energy efficiency again in 2023 and enacted policies that support energy savings in existing buildings, including Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Maryland, according to a national energy efficiency scorecard from American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit research group. Massachusetts, Vermont, Colorado and Maryland were in the process of developing standards to reduce emissions from heating and cooling when the report was released in March. The report ranked Colorado seventh for its energy efficiency policies. The state recently published its model low energy and carbon code, which cities and counties adopt when they update building codes and building efficiency regulations as part of a law Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed into law in 2022.
Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) opposed his state’s regulations during the hearing and said he considered them government overreach.
“We all want to be good and responsible stewards of our environment and the energy we produce from our environment, but we also have to have a common sense approach to this,” he said. “And so my first question will be a yes or no question to everyone on the panel: Do you think the government should mandate that electric utilities and appliance manufacturers have the ability to reach into a private citizen’s house and adjust their thermostat, their water heater, literally the ability to dim lights in the name of energy efficiency?”
All of the witnesses said no, although one witness, Kara Saul Rinaldi, chief policy officer of the Building Performance Association, asked if his question was about the federal government before answering.
Evans then described the Colorado building code and related his question to the 2022 law’s mandate that, as of next July, whenever cities and counties update their local building codes, they must adopt the regulations requiring new commercial and residential buildings have wiring and appliance connections and controllable electric appliances, to ensure there isn’t too much electrical strain on the grid. The Colorado Times Recorder reached out to Evans’ office and asked if there are any types of efficiency standards he supports on the federal or state level and whether he believes climate change is an economic threat. Evans’ office did not respond by time of publication.
A number of factors are likely responsible for higher electric and gas bills, such as the scale of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, increasing natural gas prices and extreme weather events from climate change, which lawmakers and witnesses mentioned during the hearing. The White House has been enthusiastic about AI technology and met with tech leaders to support harnessing AI earlier this month. Home prices have been rising for many years due to there being more housing demand than supply and higher mortgage rates and housing experts are looking out for the impact of tariffs and labor shortages as a result of Trump administration policies on prices.
Democrats and advocates for energy efficiency standards said consumers would be hurt by the lack of cost savings that energy efficiency brings them and said that taxpayers will eventually pay for a lack of standards that they say would make homes more resilient to extreme climate events.
A 2024 study found that Biden administration appliance efficiency standards were projected to save each household an average of $107 a year and that businesses would save a total of $2 billion a year. The analysis was conducted by Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a group that advocates for appliance and equipment standards and PIRG, a consumer advocacy group.
Democrats hammered home the expected impact to Americans’ bills as a result of Trump’s tax and spending law. Rep. Frank Pallone (R-NJ) described the economic impact of Trump’s big spending law, which is expected to increase home energy bills thanks to its elimination of energy efficiency programs and incentives. One such figure may have come from a report from the REPEAT Project, which is led by Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins, which found that household energy bills would increase by nearly $300 per household over a year in 2035 due to the bill’s passage.
“In talking about Biden-era policies, the Republicans have control of this chamber,” said Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ). “They have control of the Senate and they have control as a Republican president but they like to blame the affordability challenge on the prior administration instead of taking accountability for their lack of action to drive down the costs that so many of our families are burdened with.”
Republicans at the hearing claimed that regulations were responsible for many of the expenses hurting households by focusing on Biden-era energy efficiency standard rules, some of which have been rescinded. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the withdrawal of several rules on appliance efficiency standards and the postponement of effective dates for other rules, which has often been framed as embracing “freedom of choice” and “removing burdensome regulations.” The witnesses at the hearing included a utility company executive, a policy expert at a free market think tank, a homebuilder group chairman and policy expert at a group that represents businesses and government agencies focused on making homes more energy efficient.
Jim Steffes, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at Washington Gas, advocated for the passage of the Reliable Infrastructure Act, which was introduced in July, to repeal federal building energy efficiency performance standards. He also championed the Energy Choice Act, introduced in June, to prohibit state or local governments from “prohibiting or limiting the connection, reconnection, modification, installation, transportation, distribution, or expansion of an energy service based on the type or source of energy to be delivered.” Steffes said the latter bill “prevents state and local gas bans from restricting energy choice in a balkanized and haphazard manner..” Rep. Nick Langworthy (R) introduced both bills.
The hearing witnesses and Republican members of Congress did not seem to be on the same page about whether states and localities have the best ideas for energy efficiency regulations or if sub-federal regulations should exist at all.
Buddy Hughes, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said different states have different regulatory needs and said, “There’s no one size fits all … It should be left up to individual states and local governments to tailor those codes to those areas.”
Republican lawmakers said they supported conservation and energy efficiency and that it was a matter of supporting what was reasonable, but they did not name examples of the kind of regulations they would support. Witnesses also seemed puzzled as to how to answer this. When Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) asked The National Association of Homebuilders’ Board Chairman Buddy Hughes, “How do we know we get the right regulations from state and federal [government]?” Hughes responded, “We feel like we’re there,” suggesting there is no more need for further regulation.
Rinaldi, the only witness speaking in favor of Biden-era regulations on energy efficiency, said she believed these kinds of standards would help put less strain on the grid at a time when AI creates more energy demand.
She added that there are also particular benefits to energy efficiency for renters. In her opening testimony, she said that tenants — 35% of Americans according to 2023 Census numbers– are often responsible for paying their utility bills. When landlords don’t see as much of the energy savings they have less of an incentive to make their units more energy efficient.
“Building energy codes and appliance and equipment standards provide the minimum efficiency baseline to protect consumers,” she said.
Video of the full subcommittee hearing is available here. Evans, who spoke for the last five minutes of the session, begins his comments at 2:50:00.
