INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY GROUP TO OFFER GREEN MANUFACTURING BILL

A broad coalition of manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates is drafting legislative language for a comprehensive federal program to increase industrial efficiencies across several manufacturing sectors, initiatives that go into greater detail than the efficiency proposals recently unveiled by the powerful lobbying group the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

The coalition, the Alliance for Materials Manufacturing Excellence (AMMEX), has been in discussions with NAM about combining some of the groups' proposals, but sources say no decisions have been made. Model federal legislation from both groups is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

NAM's proposal takes a broad two-pronged approach that emphasizes expanding domestic energy supplies and reducing the energy intensity of the manufacturing sector. The AMMEX plan stresses efficiencies and recommends specific measures, including $350 million in annual federal funding for research and development (R&D), business education, and commercial demonstration of strategies and technologies to boost the "transformation" of materials manufacturing toward less energy-intensive, more sustainable practices.

The group also is promoting research into the role nanotechnology could play in increasing industrial energy efficiency.

A source at AMMEX says the group will approach lawmakers about sponsoring the language as a stand-alone bill, or including parts of it in other legislation. "We have no pride of authorship," the source says.

Consisting of companies in several heavy manufacturing sectors and their associated trade associations, AMMEX members include the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council, the American Forest and Paper Association, the chemical industry's Vision2020 Partnership, pulp and paper giant Weyerhauser, automotive supplier Visteon, electronics company Siemens, and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

The coalition strongly supports the Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), a program within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy that jointly funds industry R&D efforts, promotes corporate education, and works on implementation of pioneering efficient technologies, according to an AMMEX document on the program.

The AMMEX source says the proposal is not meant to replace the ITP, but "update" it to refocus on more "important issues" and technologies that would make it more "applicable for the modern world."

The ITP has "done an amazing job over the past 25 years," the source says, noting the technologies and practices developed under the program have reduced greenhouse gases and other pollutants, saved industry millions of dollars in energy costs, and reduced dependence on foreign energy sources.

But the source expresses disappointment with the proposed funding levels for the program by the Bush administration. "This administration has not been making a robust request, and we're at the point with the FY08 budget where it's not even a credible request," referring to the recently proposed $45.99 million budget for the ITP, a funding request that is considerably lower than Clinton-era funding levels of more than $200 million, the source says.

The NAM proposal also promotes public-private partnerships to achieve energy intensity reductions, and says those initiatives should be guided by "markets and investment decisions," according to a NAM report released at a Feb. 14 press conference.

The NAM proposal also supports major energy efficiency research efforts, including creation of an advanced research projects agency for energy (ARPA-E) within DOE, modeled after a Defense Department research program. ARPA-E is intended to enhance and coordinate research into alternative and next-generation energy technologies, a program that is supported by scientists, lawmakers, and other industries, according to the group. NAM also recommends Congress authorize $65 million for DOE research into combined heat-and-power and distributed generation technologies, which NAM says "hold great promise for increased reliability and efficiency."

AMMEX proposes more targeted research programs "to develop new manufacturing processes capable of using diverse sources of energy" that would be coordinated by the departments of Energy and Commerce in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency. This "Materials Manufacturing Process Transformation Research Program" would provide $250 million in matching funds for an industry research program for "development and demonstration...of advanced technologies that reduce energy intensity and improve environmental performance."

The group also seeks to authorize $100 million annually for an "Industrial Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Assessments Initiative that reauthorizes the existing DOE Industrial Assessment Centers program, and . . . continues the energy savings assessments that were started as part of Save Energy Now," an ITP initiative to help industry, government and the public conserve energy.

The bill also looks to establish a "Coordinated Feedstocks And Recycling Research Initiative" to be co-funded by industry, to explore "the opportunities for meeting manufacturing feedstock requirements with alternative resources," and to improve the quality and quantity of feedstocks recovered from process and waste streams, as well as other means of "energy enhanced recycling and re-use."

AMMEX also seeks to provide "Energy Efficiency and Alternative Energy Resource Investment Incentives" for investments at manufacturing plants that "reduce energy intensity, improve energy use, or make use of alternative energy resources."

The underlined documents in the preceding story are available online through the electronic version of the story at InsideGreenBusiness.com.