Joe Barton: “In the beginning, he has some efficiency standards. He goes through and sets some specific standards on specific…”

“In the beginning, he has some efficiency standards. He goes through and sets some specific standards on specific appliances, dishwashers and things like this. But on page 21, there is something beginning on line 16 that I just do not understand and I just want to see. The gentleman from New York may not understand it either, because he may not have had much advance work in drafting this. The heading is Administration, Penalties, Enforcement and Preemption. It says, ``Section 345 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, 42 U.S. Code 6316, is amended by adding at the end the following.'' It just goes down and says if a State wants to set up a specific standard, that is fine, and that State standard will not be preempted until the Federal standards established under this bill take effect on January 1, 2010. I understand that. He is saying the States can set a standard, but once the standards in the bill kick in on January 1, 2010, the Federal standard preempts. That is a policy debate; we can argue that back and forth. The next section, I do not understand, subparagraph 3, line 16: ``If the California Energy Commission adopts, not later than March 31, 2005, a regulation concerning the energy efficiency or energy effective after, the standards established under section 342(a)(9) take effect on January 1, 2010.'' What does that mean?…”