Energy Efficient Government Technology Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1268) to amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to promote energy efficiency via information and computing technologies, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 1268
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Energy Efficient Government Technology Act''. SEC. 2. ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND ENERGY-SAVING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES.
(a) Amendment.--Subtitle C of title V of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-140; 121 Stat. 1661) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``SEC. 530. ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND ENERGY-SAVING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Director.--The term `Director' means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
``(2) Information technology.--The term `information technology' has the meaning given that term in section 11101 of title 40, United States Code.
``(b) Development of Implementation Strategy.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, each Federal agency shall coordinate with the Director, the Secretary, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to develop an implementation strategy (that includes best practices and measurement and verification techniques) for the maintenance, purchase, and use by the Federal agency of energy-efficient and energy-saving information technologies, taking into consideration the performance goals established under subsection (d).
``(c) Administration.--In developing an implementation strategy under subsection (b), each Federal agency shall consider--
``(1) advanced metering infrastructure;
``(2) energy-efficient data center strategies and methods of increasing asset and infrastructure utilization;
``(3) advanced power management tools;
``(4) building information modeling, including building energy management;
``(5) secure telework and travel substitution tools; and
``(6) mechanisms to ensure that the agency realizes the energy cost savings brought about through increased efficiency and utilization.
``(d) Performance Goals.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Director, in consultation with the Secretary, shall establish performance goals for evaluating the efforts of Federal agencies in improving the maintenance, purchase, and use of energy-efficient and energy-saving information technology.
``(2) Best practices.--The Chief Information Officers Council established under section 3603 of title 44, United States Code, shall recommend best practices for the attainment of the performance goals, which shall include Federal agency consideration of, to the extent applicable by law, the use of--
``(A) energy savings performance contracting; and
``(B) utility energy services contracting.
``(e) Reports.--
``(1) Agency reports.--Each Federal agency shall include in the report of the agency under section 527 a description of the efforts and results of the agency under this section.
``(2) OMB government efficiency reports and scorecards.-- Effective beginning not later than October 1, 2017, the Director shall include in the annual report and scorecard of the Director required under section 528 a description of the efforts and results of Federal agencies under this section.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is amended by adding after the item relating to section 529 the following: ``Sec. 530. Energy-efficient and energy-saving information technologies.''. SEC. 3. ENERGY EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS.
Section 453 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17112) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b)(2)(D)(iv), by striking ``determined by the organization'' and inserting ``proposed by the stakeholders'';
(2) by striking subsection (b)(3); and
(3) by striking subsections (c) through (g) and inserting the following:
``(c) Stakeholder Involvement.--The Secretary and the Administrator shall carry out subsection (b) in collaboration with the information technology industry and other key stakeholders, with the goal of producing results that accurately reflect the most relevant and useful information available. In such collaboration, the Secretary and the Administrator shall pay particular attention to organizations that--
``(1) have members with expertise in energy efficiency and in the development, operation, and functionality of data centers, information technology equipment, and software, such as representatives of hardware manufacturers, data center operators, and facility managers;
``(2) obtain and address input from Department of Energy National Laboratories or any college, university, research institution, industry association, company, or public interest group with applicable expertise;
``(3) follow--
``(A) commonly accepted procedures for the development of specifications; and
``(B) accredited standards development processes; and
``(4) have a mission to promote energy efficiency for data centers and information technology.
``(d) Measurements and Specifications.--The Secretary and the Administrator shall consider and assess the adequacy of the specifications, measurements, best practices, and benchmarks described in subsection (b) for use by the Federal Energy Management Program, the Energy Star Program, and other efficiency programs of the Department of Energy or the Environmental Protection Agency.
``(e) Study.--The Secretary, in collaboration with the Administrator, shall, not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act, make available to the public an update to the Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency published on August 2, 2007, under section 1 of Public Law 109-431 (120 Stat. 2920), that provides--
``(1) a comparison and gap analysis of the estimates and projections contained in the original report with new data regarding the period from 2008 through 2015;
``(2) an analysis considering the impact of information technologies, including virtualization and cloud computing, in the public and private sectors;
``(3) an evaluation of the impact of the combination of cloud platforms, mobile devices, social media, and big data on data center energy usage;
``(4) an evaluation of water usage in data centers and recommendations for reductions in such water usage; and
``(5) updated projections and recommendations for best practices through fiscal year 2020.
``(f) Data Center Energy Practitioner Program.--The Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall maintain a data center energy practitioner program that leads to the certification of energy practitioners qualified to evaluate the energy usage and efficiency opportunities in Federal data centers. Each Federal agency shall consider having the data centers of the agency evaluated every 4 years, in accordance with section 543(f) of the National Energy Conservation Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 8253), by energy practitioners certified pursuant to such program.
``(g) Open Data Initiative.--The Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall establish an open data initiative for Federal data center energy usage data, with the purpose of making such data available and accessible in a manner that encourages further data center innovation, optimization, and consolidation. In establishing the initiative, the Secretary shall consider the use of the online Data Center Maturity Model.
``(h) International Specifications and Metrics.--The Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders, shall actively participate in efforts to harmonize global specifications and metrics for data center energy and water efficiency.
``(i) Data Center Utilization Metric.--The Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders, shall facilitate the development of an efficiency metric that measures the energy efficiency of a data center (including equipment and facilities).
``(j) Protection of Proprietary Information.--The Secretary and the Administrator shall not disclose any proprietary information or trade secrets provided by any individual or company for the purposes of carrying out this section or the programs and initiatives established under this section.''.
I thank Representative Eshoo of California, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, for her work on this bill.
This legislation would require Federal agencies to coordinate with the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency to develop an implementation strategy, including best practices and measurement and verification techniques for the maintenance, purchase, and use of energy-efficient and energy- saving information technologies. OMB would be required to track and report on each agency's progress.
In 2013, the U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 91 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough electricity to power all of the households in New York City twice over; and, I might say, they are on track to reach 140 billion kilowatt-hours by 2020. This amounts to roughly 2 percent of all the electricity used in the U.S. each year. Federal data centers are responsible for at least 10 percent of all U.S. data center energy use.
Consequently, this bill seeks to improve the energy efficiency of Federal data centers by, in part, requiring the Department of Energy to update a 2007 report on data center energy efficiency and maintain a data center energy practitioner certification program. DOE also would establish an open data initiative to help share best practices and support further innovation and develop a metric that measures data center energy efficiency.
So this is a very important bill that focuses on efficiency in these Federal data centers, and I would urge all of the Members to support this legislation.
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Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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