WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following a bitterly-cold and expensive Maine winter, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today filed an amendment to the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act that would help curb rising heating costs for Mainers by making it easier to utilize Weatherization Assistance Program funding to replace outdated, costly and inefficient heating units with more efficient ones.

“Maine is the most heating oil dependent state in the nation, so if Mainers are working hard to reduce their energy costs and limit their environmental footprint by replacing outdated heating appliances with more efficient units, then the government should be doing all it can to support that – rather than making it more difficult with an extensive waiver process,” Senator King said. “My commonsense amendment would allow states like Maine the flexibility to use federal funds to support the replacement of old heating systems with more efficient and updated units, which will save money, keep more Mainers warm, and reduce the need for LIHEAP funding.”

Under current law, individual approval from the Department of Energy (DOE) is required any time a state administers funding under the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) for use in replacing a heating unit with an updated one that uses a different fuel source. King’s amendment would grant an automatic waiver from the DOE any time states wish to administer WAP funding to upgrade to more efficient units. To read the text of the amendment, click HERE.

King is also a cosponsor of a bipartisan amendment authored by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would enable homeowners to save money and reduce energy consumption by providing low-cost loans through the DOE’s State Energy Program for energy efficiency improvements like adding insulation and installing high-efficiency windows.

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2014, introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and currently under consideration by the Senate, uses a variety of low-cost tools to help energy users become more efficient while making the country’s largest energy user – the federal government – reduce its energy consumption through the use of energy-efficient technology. The deficit neutral bill incentivizes the use of efficiency technologies that are commercially available today, can be widely deployed across the country, and quickly pay for themselves through energy savings. For more information on the bill, click HERE.

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