By Debra DeHaney-Howard and Kevin McCarty
April 5, 2010

Senators Robert Menendez (NJ), Bernard Sanders (VT) and Richard G. Lugar (IN) are again leading a bipartisan Senate effort to urge Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to make the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program a funding priority as appropriations measures for the new fiscal year are developed.

Enlisting 26 other Senators to join with them, all are united in seeking $3.2 billion for the EECBG program in the Fiscal Year 2011 energy appropriations bill, the same level of funding provided early last year as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Menendez, Sanders and Lugar, who are former mayors, are champions of strong and continuing funding for the EECBG program to increase federal investment in locally based energy and climate solutions.

“It is time to build upon the crucial foundation that ARRA put down and move this country even closer to energy independence and further advance pressing climate protection objectives. The EECBG program gets us there through grants to local officials who know best how to meet the specific energy needs of their communities. A strong commitment to this program is essential, especially at this time when local and state governments are facing severe budgetary shortfalls that now threaten their efforts to make further progress on national and local energy and climate goals. To sustain the forward progress made possible by ARRA and to enable even broader local action that secures energy savings and other gains for the nation,” the Senators wrote in their March 26 letter request.

In the correspondence to Senators Byron Dorgan (ND) and Bob Bennett (ID), Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy & Water Development, the 29 Senators wrote, “At a time when so many [cities] are struggling economically, this program creates jobs, reduces consumers’ energy bills, and can help curb the release of harmful greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. While many city, county, and state governments throughout the U.S. have stepped forward to tackle these issues, EECBG Program resources are now needed to accelerate these efforts and launch new initiatives.”

Acknowledging the importance of the program to mayors and other local leaders, the Senators said, “This partnership program is exactly what local officials throughout the United States continue to urge Congress to embrace – an opportunity to expand on the success of local initiatives to increase energy efficiency, promote energy conservation, expand renewable energy supplies, and create jobs. EISA ensures that program resources are results-oriented, with recipients reporting each year on their energy efficiency gains.”

Joining with Menendez, Sanders and Lugar on the letter were: Daniel Akaka (HI); Mark Begich (AK); Jeff Bingaman (NM); Barbara Boxer (CA); Sherwood Brown (OH); Roland Burris (IL); Benjamin Cardin (MD); Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA); Christopher Dodd (CT); Russ Feingold (WI); Kirsten E. Gillibrand (NY); Kay R. Hagan (NC); Ted Kaufman (DE); John Kerry (MA); Herb Kohl (WI); Frank Lautenberg (NJ); Patrick Leahy (VT); Carl Levin (MI); Joseph Lieberman (CT); Blanch Lincoln (AR); Jeff Merkley (OR); Charles E. Schumer (NY); Jeanne Shaheen (NH); Debbie Stabenow (MI); Ron Wyden (OR); and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI).

Menendez, who originated the Congressional effort to enact the EECBG program, was joined by Sanders in pressing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to make this initiative part of its energy bill, legislation which later became the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.” Sustained, annual EECBG funding is a top Conference of Mayors- priority; Conference of Mayors President Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz, at the direction of the Executive Committee, made this a major component of the Mayors’ Metro Agenda.

While President Obama supported EECBG funding as part of the ARRA law, his FY’11 Budget Request did not include funding for the program. The EECBG program, which is authorized through FY’12, is an initiative “conceived” by the Conference of Mayors and its leadership to deliver direct funding to cities in support of local energy and climate efforts, especially aimed at supporting the more than 1,000 mayors striving to achieve the 2012 goals of the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.