“Energy demand in the United States is rapidly increasing. At the same time, energy costs remain elevated and volatile,” said Casten. "Despite energy being a core input into every sector of our economy, policymakers lack basic, standardized tools to measure how efficiently energy is being used. The Powering Productivity Act and the Energy METRIC Act address this problem head-on and provide the insights necessary to help lower costs and increase stability.”
“In this time of historic load growth, it’s more important than ever that our country uses energy as efficiently and productively as possible,” said Jennifer Layke, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “These two bills would fill critical gaps in current data collection efforts, modernizing energy accounting and reporting to better understand primary energy use and energy productivity.”
“Improving how we measure energy is essential to improving how we use it. Congressman Casten’s Powering Productivity Act and Energy METRIC Act fill long-standing data and transparency gaps that limit the nation’s ability to fully capitalize on energy efficiency,” said Paula Glover, president of Alliance to Save Energy.
Powering Productivity Act
Economic growth is driven by four core inputs: labor, capital, natural resources, and energy. The United States has spent decades systematically measuring and improving the productivity of labor, capital, and natural resources. But despite being a foundational input to every sector of the economy, the economic productivity of energy remains largely unmeasured.
The Powering Productivity Act directs the Department of Energy to establish:
The first national baseline of U.S. energy productivity, measuring how effectively energy inputs generate economic value across sectors and regions;
An Energy Information Administration (EIA)-led quarterly Energy Productivity Report aligned with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Labor Productivity Reports;
A triennial Comprehensive Energy Productivity and Competitiveness Assessment evaluating impacts of increased energy productivity on costs, emissions, environmental impacts, health, resilience, and U.S. industrial competitiveness.
Text of the Powering Productivity Act can be found here.
Energy METRIC Act
The Energy METRIC Act modernizes how EIA measures and reports national energy use by examining the limitations of legacy “primary energy” metrics (i.e. metrics developed for a fossil-dominated economy) and directing EIA to develop technology-neutral energy accounting approaches.
By improving comparability across energy sources, this bill provides policymakers, researchers, and markets with a more accurate picture of system efficiency, electrification trends, and energy performance as the energy mix evolves.
Text of the Energy Metric Act can be found here.
