Ed Whitfield

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. 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. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Section 203 of the Federal Power Act establishes requirements for the sale, disposition, merger, purchase, and acquisition of certain utility assets and facilities. In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress amended section 203 by dividing the section into separate statutory subsections, adding a new subsection granting FERC jurisdiction to review sales of certain generating facilities and increasing the minimum monetary threshold from $50,000 to $10 million for three of the four statutory subsections. This monetary threshold serves as a floor to ensure that public utilities would only be required to file and FERC to review proposed transactions of a minimal material significance. As amended by Congress in 2005, the subsection in section 203 of the Federal Power Act that pertains to mergers and consolidations of FERC jurisdictional facilities did not include an express minimum monetary threshold of $10 million or any other amount. FERC has since interpreted this statutory change as eliminating the de minimis exceptions for mergers and consolidations. As a result, mergers and consolidations of any amount, no matter how small, require FERC approval. This legislation, H.R. 4427, which was introduced by Mr. Pompeo of Kansas, remedies this discrepancy by amending section 203 to expressly include a minimum monetary threshold of $10 million for mergers and consolidations of FERC jurisdictional facilities, thereby mirroring the existing $10 million monetary threshold set forth in the other three subsections of section 203. As explained by the general counsel of FERC, ``adding a $10 million de minimus threshold to the `merge and consolidate clause' . . . could ease the administrative burden on the Commission staff and the regulatory burden on industry without a significant negative effect on the Commission's regulatory responsibilities.'' Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to pass this legislation introduced by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Pompeo). I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Massachusetts made reference, this bill will reduce regulatory burdens, bring important parity to the statute, while also protecting ratepayers by providing important notice requirements. I would urge its passage. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2080) to reinstate and extend the deadline for commencement of construction of a hydroelectric project involving Clark Canyon Dam.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, this is an important piece of legislation to give additional time for the development of Clark Canyon Dam, for which a license has been issued in the past. I urge passage of this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3447) to extend the deadline for commencement of construction of a hydroelectric project, as amended.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to give a strong thanks to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for her work on this legislation. This, like the other two pieces of legislation that we have just passed, refers to a hydroelectric project, in North Carolina in this instance. Like the facts in the other cases, after granting a license to commence construction of this project, FERC issued an order terminating the project license as a result of continued delays by the project applicant and other agencies. This legislation requires FERC to reinstate the license and extend the start time for construction of the W. Kerr Scott Dam project for 6 years. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to give a special thanks to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley) for his work on this legislation. Like the other three before, this relates to a hydropower project, this one located at the Jennings Randolph Dam in West Virginia. Like the other cases, after granting a license to commence construction of this project, FERC issued an order terminating the project license as a result of continued delays by the project applicant and other agencies. This legislation simply requires FERC to reinstate the license and extend the start time for construction of the Jennings Randolph Dam in West Virginia for 6 years. I urge the passage of this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Zinke), the author of this legislation.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, once again, this is legislation extending, for 8 years in this case, construction of a hydropower project at the Collinsville Dam in New York. I want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gibson) for his work on this bill. Once again, the FERC had issued a license to commence construction of this project. They then issued an order terminating the project because it did not meet certain time deadlines because of delays by the project applicant and other agencies. This legislation simply requires FERC to reinstate the license and extend the start time for a period of 8 years. I urge the passage of this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Before I get into a specific discussion of this legislation, I do want to thank the staff on both the Republican and Democratic side of the Energy and Commerce Committee. I certainly want to thank Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Rush, and Mr. Pallone for working with us on all of these important pieces of legislation. Once again, this particular bill relates to a hydropower project at the Flannagan Dam in Virginia. I would like to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith) for his work on this legislation. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Griffith).

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I also urge passage of H.R. 4412. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4411) to extend the deadline for commencement of construction of a hydroelectric project.

Mr. WHITFIELD

Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Commerce be authorized to file a supplemental report on the bill, H.R. 4596.