“AHRI applauds the leadership of Senators Mark Pryor and John Hoeven, who introduced an amendment that will allow our members to continue manufacturing water heaters for demand response programs, an important component of long term energy savings,” said Stephen Yurek, president and CEO at AHRI. “In addition, Senator Jeff Sessions and Mark Pryor took the lead on an important amendment that will save taxpayer dollars by avoiding duplicative programs."

The amendment applies to large-capacity, grid-enabled, electric resistance water heaters for use in electric thermal storage or demand response programs, creating an exemption under new standards that go into effect in April 2015.

The second amendment requires the Department of Energy to recognize voluntary, independent certification programs for certain products, and to rely on qualified programs to verify the performance of these products. According to AHRI, such a program would include the association's certification program. In return, certification programs such as AHRI’s would provide annual reports to DOE.

“These amendments, and the bill itself, are a fine example of industry and environmental advocates coming together for the good of the country and the HVACR and water heating manufacturing industry, which contributes more than one million jobs to the economy,” said Yurek.

For more information, visit www.ahrinet.org.