Mr. Speaker, I want to add my thanks to those of my colleague, Mrs. Ellmers. I want to also thank Chairman Upton, Ranking Member Pallone. I want to thank Chairman Whitfield and Ranking Member Rush, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Pompeo, Mr. Dent, and Mrs. Capps, all for supporting this important measure.
This bill updates the DOE's energy conservation standards to keep with the innovations that have taken place over the last decade in household and commercial lighting.
While the latest lighting may look similar on the exterior, it actually runs on new and exciting technology. Frankly, as you have heard from the other speakers, we need to update our regulatory scheme to keep these innovations going.
Specifically, when the Energy and Commerce Committee wrote the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2005, it directed the Department of Energy to develop a conservation standard for external power supply products.
Because of the inadvertently broad definition we created for external power supplies, emerging LED drivers were swept up into a standard that, as you have heard so eloquently from the other speakers, just doesn't make any sense.
That means that, although LED drivers are highly energy-efficient, they can't meet the EPS conservation standard, and their ability to compete in the competitive lighting market is now an open question.
Now, this might seem like a technicality, but in the real world, this bill is vitally important. Just last week, for example, General Electric and JPMorgan Chase rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange to announce a deal for the world's largest single-order installation of LED lighting.
GE will install LED lighting at 5,000 JPMorgan Chase bank branches this year, which will cut the bank's lighting bill in half. But unless we pass this bill quickly, the new lighting at JPMorgan Chase locations technically won't meet basic efficiency standards.
It is urgent that we pass this bill now and that we pass it quickly through the other body because these new efficiency standards are going into effect. And while everybody agrees LED lighting is important, we are still coming against the letter of the law.
And so that is why I want to thank everybody on both sides of the aisle for realizing how incredibly important this is.
By passing the EPS Improvement Act of 2016, we will let the LED lighting revolution continue. We will help lower energy prices for every American business and household, and will continue our goal of more and more efficient energy.
Mr. Speaker, if my friend across the aisle still has no speakers, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).
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Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, having no other speakers, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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