Establishes the Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment Program to reward retailers for increasing the sales of high-efficiency installed building equipment, consumer electronics, and household appliance models, with the goal of reducing life-cycle costs for consumers, encouraging innovation, and maximizing energy savings.
Requires that the program include: (1) bounties to retailers for replacing and recycling old, inefficient, and environmentally harmful appliances; and (2) bonuses to manufacturers for developing new Superefficient Best-in-Class Products.
Directs the Secretary of Energy to ensure that not more than one bonus payment is provided to distributors and retailers per unit of eligible models sold. Allows the Secretary to make distributors eligible to receive the incentive for sales that are not to end-users in addition to retailers if the Secretary determines that, for a particular product category, distributors are well situated to increase sales of Best-in-Class Products.
Makes any product that is eligible for an energy efficient appliance tax credit ineligible for a payment to a manufacturer under this Act.
Authorizes the Secretary to require that retailers and distributors disclose publicly and to consumers their participation in the program under this Act.
Directs the Secretary to make cost-effectiveness a top priority in designing and administering this Act, but allows the cost-effectiveness of the rewards to manufacturers, in aggregate, to be lower than that of the rewards to retailers and distributors. Defines "cost-effectiveness" as a measure of aggregate energy cost savings over the life of the product as a ratio to the cost of the rewards.
[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H.R. 1786 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1786
To establish a Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment Program.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 30, 2009
Ms. Harman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment Program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. BEST-IN-CLASS APPLIANCES DEPLOYMENT PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of Energy shall, in consultation
with the Administrator, establish and administer a program to be known
as the ``Best-in-Class Appliances Deployment Program''.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of the Best-in-Class Appliances
Deployment Program is to reward retailers with bonuses for increasing
the sales of best-in-class high-efficiency installed building
equipment, high-efficiency consumer electronics, and high-efficiency
household appliance models, with the goal of reducing life-cycle costs
for consumers, encouraging innovation, and maximizing energy savings
and public benefit. The program shall include bounties under subsection
(c) to retailers for the replacement and recycling of old, inefficient,
and environmentally harmful appliances. The program shall also include
bonuses under subsection (d) to manufacturers for developing new
Superefficient Best-in-Class Products.
(c) Incentives for Sales of Best-in-Class Product Models.--
(1) Selection of best-in-class product models.--In
establishing the program, the Secretary of Energy shall use
broad product classes and select as qualifying Best-in-Class
Product models no more than the most efficient ten percent of
the commercially available product models in a class that
demonstrate, as a group, a distinctly greater energy efficiency
than the average energy efficiency of that class of appliances.
In selecting models, the Secretary shall--
(A) identify commercially available models in the
relevant class of products;
(B) identify the subgroup and percentage of those
models (not greater than 10 percent) that the Secretary
believes share the distinctly higher energy-efficiency
characteristics that warrant designation as best-in-
class;
(C) specify the higher energy-efficiency
characteristic they share;
(D) announce the best-in-class designation and the
best-in-class bonus to be paid for each sale of an
eligible best-in-class model over a 3-year period
beginning on the date of the announcement;
(E) add other models in that class to the list of
best-in-class models eligible for the bonus as they
demonstrate their ability to meet the higher-efficiency
characteristics on which the designation was made; and
(F) make bonus payments for qualifying models sold
during the 3-year period.
(2) Review of best-in-class standards.--The Secretary shall
review annually the product-specific criteria and the product
models that qualify as Best-in-Class Products and, after a 30-
day comment period, make upwards adjustments in the efficiency
criteria as required to maintain an appropriate ratio of such
product models to the total number of product models in the
product class.
(3) Upgrade of best-in-class product eligibility.--To the
extent that the Secretary determines to increase the energy
efficiency required to qualify for best-in-class designation
within any group of product models, the Secretary shall--
(A) consider any Superefficient Best-in-Class
Product models that have been designated pursuant to
subsection (d);
(B) specify and announce the new higher best-in-
class standard;
(C) list those models that qualify as best-in-class
under the new higher standard;
(D) announce any change in the bonus payment
appropriate to increase the market share of such best-
in-class models, which shall not be lower than any
ongoing bonus payment during the 3-year period for any
prior designation of best-in-class models;
(E) pay the new bonus payment for any models
already qualifying under the earlier best-in-class
standard that continue to qualify under the revised
standard for a new 3-year-period; and
(F) continue paying bonus payments at the original
level to any models that qualified at that level but do
not qualify at the new level for the remainder of the
3-year period announced with the original designation.
(4) Size of individual bonus payments.--The size of each
bonus payment shall be the product of--
(A) an amount determined by the Secretary; and
(B) the difference in energy consumption as
determined by comparing the energy used by the
qualifying product and the energy used by the average
product in the product class.
The Secretary shall determine the amount under subparagraph (A)
for each product type in consultation with State and utility
efficiency program administrators as well as the Administrator,
based on estimates of the amount of bonus payment that would
provide significant incentive to increase the market share of
Best-in-Class Products.
(5) Eligible bonus recipient.--(A) The Secretary shall
ensure that not more than 1 bonus payment is provided to
distributors and retailers per unit of eligible models sold.
(B) In this section--
(i) the term ``retailer'' means an individual,
organization, or company that sells products directly
to end-users; and
(ii) the term ``distributor'' mean an individual,
organization, or company that sells products in
multiple lots and not directly to individual end-users.
(C) The Secretary may make distributors eligible to receive
the best-in-class incentive for sales that are not to the final
end-user in addition to retailers to the extent that the
Secretary determines that for a particular product category
distributors are well situated to increase sales of Best-in-
Class Products.
(d) Bounties for Replacement and Retirement of Existing Low-
Efficiency Products.--
(1) The Secretary of Energy shall establish a program to
make a bounty payment for the recovery and recycling of older
operating low-efficiency appliances that might otherwise
continue in operation.
(2) The Secretary shall offer a bounty as an additional
incentive for retailers based on documentation that the sales
of a Best-in-Class Product were accompanied by the retirement
and recycling of an existing inefficient but still-functioning
product by the consumer to whom the Best-in-Class Product was
sold.
(3) The bounty payment shall be based on the difference
between the estimated energy use of the product replaced and
the energy use of an average new product in the product class,
discounted for the estimated remaining lifetime of the product
that was recycled.
(4) The Secretary may specify that the availability of a
product bonus related to sale of a Best-in-Class Product is
linked to the recovery and recycling of an older working
appliance, and may limit the total payment to less than the sum
of the bonus and the bounty payments, if not doing so would
mean that the Nation's total energy use would otherwise
increase.
(5) The Secretary shall ensure that no product for which a
bounty is paid is sold or returned to active service, but that
it is instead destroyed, and recycled to the extent feasible.
(6) The Secretary shall establish standards for
environmentally responsible methods of recycling, especially
for products utilizing refrigerants.
(e) Rewards to Manufacturers for Development of Superefficient
Best-in-Class Products.--
(1) In general.--(A) The Secretary of Energy shall
establish a program to reward manufacturers for the development
and production of Superefficient Best-in-Class Products.
(B) In this section, the term ``Superefficient Best-in-
Class Product'' means a product that--
(i) can be mass produced; and
(ii) achieves the highest level of efficiency that
the Secretary finds could be produced and sold
commercially to mass-market consumers.
(C) The Secretary may establish a standard for a
Superefficient Best-in-Class Product even if no existing
product exists, if the Secretary has reasonable grounds to
conclude that a mass-producable product could be made to meet
that standard.
(D) The Secretary may also establish a superefficient best-
in-class level that is met by one or more existing Best-in-
Class Product models if those product models have distinct
energy efficiency attributes and performance characteristics
that make them significantly better, in the judgment of the
Secretary, than those product models qualifying as best-in-
class, but that represent not more than 10 percent of the
currently qualifying best-in-class models.
(2) Reward.--
(A) The bonus payment provided to a manufacturer
for the development and production of a Superefficient
Best-in-Class Product shall be in addition to any bonus
payments made to retailers for best-in-class
qualification.
(B) The amount of the bonus paid per unit for
qualifying Superefficient Best-in-Class Product models
as sold to retailers or distributors shall be the
product of--
(i) an amount determined by the Secretary;
and
(ii) the difference in energy consumption
as determined by comparing the energy used by
the qualifying product and the energy used by
the average product in the product class.
(C) The Secretary shall determine the amount under
subparagraph (B)(i) for each product type by
considering the present value to the Nation of the
energy (and water or other resources or inputs) saved
over the useful life of the product, and may adjust
this value upward or downward after consultation with
State and utility efficiency program administrators as
well as the Administrator.
(D) The adjustment may also be made based on the
effect of the reward on the sales of products in
different classes that may be affected by this program.
(E) The incremental bonus payments shall be applied
to sales of any Superefficient Best-in-Class Product
for the first 3 years of its sale.
(3) Coordination of incentives.--No product for which
Federal tax credit is received under section 45M of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall be eligible to receive
bonus payments pursuant to this subsection.
(f) Reporting.--Each retailer, distributor, and manufacturer
participating in the program under this section shall meet any
reasonable request of the Secretary of Energy for documentation of
sales reported for purpose of receiving bonuses or bounties, and shall
report to the Secretary, on a confidential basis for program-design
purposes--
(1) for retailers and distributors, the number of units
sold within each product type and model-specific wholesale
purchase price on a monthly basis;
(2) for manufacturers, model-specific energy consumption
data; and
(3) for manufacturers, on an immediate basis, concerning
any product design or function changes that affect the energy
consumption of the unit.
(g) Auditing Requirements.--The Secretary of Energy shall establish
monitoring and verification protocols to ensure that energy consumption
tests for each model are recorded correctly and that sales of energy-
efficient models are tabulated correctly by each claimant of bonus or
bounty payments under this section. In addition, the Secretary may
require reports from retailers on the methods used to increase the
sales of qualifying products as a factor in determining the level and
allocation of any such payments.
(h) Disclosure.--The Secretary of Energy may require that retailers
and distributors disclose publicly and to consumers their participation
in the program under this section.
(i) Cost-Effectiveness Requirement.--
(1) Definitions.--In this subsection:
(A) Cost-effectiveness.--The term ``cost-
effectiveness'' means a measure of aggregate savings in
the cost of energy over the lifetime of the product as
a ratio to the cost to the Secretary of Energy of the
rewards for the product.
(B) Savings.--The term ``savings'' means the
cumulative megawatt-hours of electricity or million
British thermal units of other fuels saved by a
product, in comparison to projected energy consumption
based on the efficiency performance of displaced new
product sales. The amount of savings is the product
of--
(i) the net number of best-in-class or
superefficient best-in-class pieces of
equipment, electronics, and appliances sold by
a retailer, manufacturer, or distributor in a
calendar year;
(ii) the savings during the projected
useful life of the pieces of equipment,
electronics, and appliances; and
(iii) the impact of any documented measures
to retire and recycle low-performing devices at
the time of purchase of highly-efficient
substitutes.
(2) Requirement.--The Secretary shall make cost-
effectiveness a top priority in designing and administering
this section, except that the cost-effectiveness of the rewards
to manufacturers, in aggregate, may be lower by this measure
than that of the rewards to retailers and distributors.
(j) Authorization.--There are authorized to be appropriated such
sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2014
to the Secretary of Energy for purposes of this section, of which not
more than 10 percent for any fiscal year may be expended on program
administration.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
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