Kelly introduces amendment to negate Department of Energy mandate
An amendment introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, that would fully repeal a U.S. Department of Energy rule that threatens the future of domestic grain-oriented electrical steel production, was voted into an act under consideration Tuesday afternoon, May 7.
The amendment has been added to the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act,” which was introduced in November and aims to modify the process by which the Department of Energy amends, revokes or implements energy conservation standards for consumer products like household appliances.
If passed with the act, the amendment would repeal the Department of Energy’s final rule announced last month, which included a provision to delay compliance for its new minimum energy efficiency standards for electrical distribution transformers by two years. The rule also required up to 25% of distribution transformers to use amorphous steel cores, a move that would require less grain-oriented electrical steel production and threatens the 1,300 jobs at Cleveland-Cliffs Butler Works.
While the Department of Energy eased the standards compared to its original draft, Kelly said the retooled language did not go far enough.
“I was encouraged by the Department of Energy’s final rule, but I was not satisfied,” Kelly said. “The Biden Administration’s track record on domestic energy policy gives me zero reassurance that they will support these 1,300 workers or the Butler community when this final rule takes effect in 2029.
“Fully repealing this rule would eliminate heavy-handed government involvement and potentially allow for even more jobs for the Butler Works plant because of increased demand for distribution transformers nationwide.”
Making his case to Congress, Kelly urged representatives to vote in favor of the amendment. He said it would secure the jobs at the Butler plant, and keep grain-oriented electrical steel in production, which he said is more efficient than the alternative steel, amorphous, at high capacities.
Kelly yielded some of his time to Rep. John Joyce, R-13th, who said he agreed that domestic production of grain-oriented electrical steel is too important to not only Western Pennsylvania, but the nation, to place at the mercy of a department mandate.
Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, argued there is broad support for the act to be passed without the amendment.
“If Republicans really cared about the transformer shortages utilities across the nation are still suffering from, they would work with us to provide necessary funding for the president’s invocation of the Defense Production Act,” Pallone said. “Because that’s something, unlike this amendment, that would really make a positive difference.”
