On
Wednesday, AHRI announced its opposition to energy bill H.R. 2454, the American
Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), in its current form saying that
if made into law it could “quite simply create marketing and distribution chaos,”
according to AHRI President Stephen Yurek.
On
Wednesday, theAir-Conditioning, Heating,
and Refrigeration Instituteannounced its opposition to energy bill H.R. 2454, the American
Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), in its current form saying that
if made into law it could “quite simply create marketing and distribution chaos,”
according to AHRI PresidentStephen Yurek.
"In
its current form, the ACES Act would effectively allow any jurisdiction in the
nation to enact its own energy policy through the use of prescriptive building
codes, severely impacting the ability of heating, air conditioning, and
commercial refrigeration manufacturers to provide products to residential and
commercial customers in the most timely, efficient, and economical way," he
said
AHRI much prefers the Senate's approach to decreasing
energy intensity. "We, as an industry, negotiated the
federal preemption provisions of NAECA and EPACT in good faith, obtaining those
provisions in exchange for being regulated for the first time with regard to
energy efficiency," Yurek stated, adding that, "We have unequivocally
kept our end of the bargain, and our products are more efficient than they have
ever been … We will vigorously oppose any attempt to change the rules that have
worked so well to preserve American jobs, and protect American consumers and
the environment."
Rather than allow states and localities to set their own
energy conservation standards through building codes, AHRI believes that
Congress should revise and expand the tax credits contained in the stimulus
bill to allow more Americans to at least bring their heating and cooling
systems to the federal minimum efficiency level.
“Congress needs to leave
manufacturing, distribution, installation and maintenance to the experts, and
concentrate on providing incentives that allow average Americans to save energy
and money," Yurek concluded.
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