In the wake of a new report dramatically highlighting America’s inefficient use of its energy resources, Sen. Warner joined the Senate’s Energy Committee to talk about his efforts to promote energy productivity.

“All the rankings are in,” Sen. Warner told the committee, “and America ranks dead last – behind China – on energy productivity.”

“We have a lot of debate about energy policy in this country,” he continued “But one of the things we agree on is that American competitiveness and productivity is something we need to improve.”

Since 2011 Sen. Warner has served as chair of the bipartisan Alliance to Save Energy, which Sen. Warner described as “made up of both environmental groups and wide swathes of American industry.” 

“Our study,” he explained, “shows that a whopping 57% of the energy flowing through our economy is simply wasted as heat, noise, and leaks, and costs U.S. businesses and households about $130 billion a year.”

Sen. Warner didn’t just identify the problem, but laid out a plan to get American energy policy back on track. “We have a goal of doubling energy productivity between now and 2030,” he said. “Over the next 20 years that would create about 1.3 million American jobs, cut carbon emissions, and boost America’s overall economic output by about 2%.”

“So Sen. [Joe] Manchin and I have established a bill to create a state energy ‘Race to the Top’ modeled after the very successful education competition,” said Sen. Warner. “This is a competitive based grant program… it would say that a lot of the best work is done at the state and local level.  This would be looking at things like retrofitting buildings and remote metering, at the household level and the office level.”

“It would significantly reduce energy waste,” he emphasized. “It’s about increasing productivity and saving money.”