Sec. 2. Findings

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Congress finds that— the State energy program established under part D of title III of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act ( 42 U.S.C. 6321 et seq. ) (referred to in this section as SEP ) and the Weatherization Assistance Program for Low-Income Persons established under part A of title IV of the Energy Conservation and Production Act (42 U.S.C. 6861 et seq.) (referred to in this section as WAP ) have proven to be beneficial, long-term partnerships among Federal, State, and local partners; the SEP and the WAP have been reauthorized on a bipartisan basis over many years to address changing national, regional, and State circumstances and needs, especially through— the Energy Policy and Conservation Act ( 42 U.S.C. 6201 et seq. ); the Energy Conservation and Production Act ( 42 U.S.C. 6801 et seq. ); the State Energy Efficiency Programs Improvement Act of 1990 ( Public Law 101–440 ; 104 Stat. 1006); the Energy Policy Act of 1992 ( 42 U.S.C. 13201 et seq. ); the Energy Policy Act of 2005 ( 42 U.S.C. 15801 et seq. ); and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 ( 42 U.S.C. 17001 et seq. ); the SEP, also known as the State energy conservation program — was first created in 1975 to implement a State-based, national program in support of energy efficiency, renewable energy, economic development, energy emergency preparedness, and energy policy; and has come to operate in every sector of the economy in support of the private sector to improve productivity and has dramatically reduced the cost of government through energy savings at the State and local levels;

Federal laboratory studies have concluded that, for every Federal dollar invested through the SEP, more than $7 is saved in energy costs and almost $11 in non-Federal funds is leveraged; the WAP— was first created in 1976 to assist low-income families in response to the first oil embargo; has become the largest residential energy conservation program in the United States, with more than 7,100,000 homes weatherized since the WAP was created; saves an estimated 35 percent of consumption in the typical weatherized home, yielding average annual savings of $437 per year in home energy costs; has created thousands of jobs in both the construction sector and in the supply chain of materials suppliers, vendors, and manufacturers who supply the WAP; returns $2.51 in energy savings for every Federal dollar spent in energy and nonenergy benefits over the life of weatherized homes; serves as a foundation for residential energy efficiency retrofit standards, technical skills, and workforce training for the emerging broader market and reduces residential and power plant emissions of carbon dioxide by 2.65 metric tons each year per home; and has decreased national energy consumption by the equivalent of 24,100,000 barrels of oil annually; the WAP can be enhanced with the addition of a targeted portion of Federal funds through an innovative program that supports projects performed by qualified nonprofit organizations that have a demonstrated capacity to build, renovate, repair, or improve the energy efficiency of a significant number of low-income homes; the WAP has increased energy efficiency opportunities by promoting new, competitive public-private sector models of retrofitting low-income homes through new Federal partnerships; improved monitoring and reporting of the work product of the WAP has yielded benefits, and expanding independent verification of efficiency work will support the long-term goals of the WAP; reports of the Government Accountability Office in 2011, Inspector General of the Department of Energy, and State auditors have identified State-level deficiencies in monitoring efforts that can be addressed in a manner that will ensure that WAP funds are used more effectively; through the history of the WAP, the WAP has evolved with improvements in efficiency technology, including, in the 1990s, many States adopting advanced home energy audits, which has led to great returns on investment; and as the home energy efficiency industry has become more performance-based, the WAP should continue to use those advances in technology and the professional workforce.

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