I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8769 

To provide financial assistance to States and Indian Tribes for the development, implementation, improvement, or expansion of a flex-tech energy 

program to enhance manufacturing competitiveness, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 14, 2024 

Mr. TONKO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To provide financial assistance to States and Indian Tribes 

for the development, implementation, improvement, or 

expansion of a flex-tech energy program to enhance manufacturing competitiveness, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘State Industrial Com5 petitiveness Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. STATE FLEX-TECH ENERGY PROGRAM. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part D of title III of the Energy 

3 Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6321 et seq.) is 

4 amended by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 367. FLEX-TECH ENERGY PROGRAM TO ENHANCE 

6 MANUFACTURING COMPETITIVENESS. 

7 ‘‘(a) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—Upon request from 

8 the State energy agency of a State that has in effect an 

9 approved State energy conservation plan under this part, 

10 or an Indian Tribe, the Secretary shall provide financial 

11 assistance to such State energy agency or Indian Tribe 

12 to be used for the development, implementation, improve13 ment, or expansion of a flex-tech energy program de14 scribed in subsection (b) to enhance manufacturing com15 petitiveness. 

16 ‘‘(b) FLEX-TECH ENERGY PROGRAM ELEMENTS.— 

17 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A flex-tech energy program 

18 may include— 

19 ‘‘(A) provision of technical and administra20 tive assistance to manufacturers through quali21 fied engineering firms, as determined by the 

22 State energy agency or Indian Tribe; 

23 ‘‘(B) provision of financial assistance to 

24 manufacturers— 


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1 ‘‘(i) for energy studies of manufac2 turing facilities that are conducted by 

3 qualified engineering firms; and 

4 ‘‘(ii) to support the implementation of 

5 the measures and recommendations identi6 fied in energy studies conducted pursuant 

7 to clause (i), including the design, acquisi8 tion, installation, testing, operation, main9 tenance, and repair of energy- and water10 using systems, resiliency-related measures, 

11 emissions reduction-related measures, util12 ity cost savings measures, and measures 

13 related to advanced manufacturing tech14 nologies and artificial intelligence; and 

15 ‘‘(C) reporting on monitoring, tracking, 

16 and success metrics of the program. 

17 ‘‘(2) STUDIES.—An energy study of a manufac18 turing facility conducted pursuant to paragraph 

19 (1)(B) may include— 

20 ‘‘(A) an evaluation of the energy-using sys21 tems of the facility, including evaluation of the 

22 performance of such systems relative to design 

23 intent, operational needs of the facility and its 

24 occupants, and operation and maintenance pro25 cedures; 


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1 ‘‘(B) an evaluation of emissions related to 

2 the facility, including greenhouse gas emissions, 

3 and recommendations on sustainability planning 

4 and practices; 

5 ‘‘(C) an evaluation of potential energy effi6 ciency, water efficiency, greenhouse gas emis7 sions mitigation, and load reduction measures 

8 for the facility; 

9 ‘‘(D) an evaluation of potential on-site en10 ergy measures, including grid-interactive effi11 ciency systems, combined heat and power, in12 dustrial heat pumps, efficient compressed air 

13 systems, energy storage, energy management 

14 systems, renewable thermal systems, and elec15 trification or other forms of fuel switching; 

16 ‘‘(E) recommendations on the use of new 

17 technologies by the applicable manufacturer; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(F) detailed estimates of potential imple20 mentation costs, operating cost savings, energy 

21 savings, emissions reductions, and simple pay22 back periods, for measures and recommenda23 tions identified in such study. 

24 ‘‘(3) QUALIFIED ENGINEERING FIRMS.—A 

25 State energy agency or Indian Tribe administering 


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1 a flex-tech energy program shall maintain and regu2 larly update a publicly available list of qualified engi3 neering firms that are approved by the State energy 

4 agency or Indian Tribe to provide assistance to man5 ufacturers pursuant to this section. 

6 ‘‘(c) FUNDING.— 

7 ‘‘(1) ALLOCATION.—Except as provided in 

8 paragraph (2), to the extent practicable, the Sec9 retary shall allocate funding made available to carry 

10 out this section in accordance with the formula used 

11 for distribution of Federal financial assistance pro12 vided pursuant to this part to States that have in ef13 fect an approved State energy conservation plan 

14 under this part. 

15 ‘‘(2) INDIAN TRIBES.—The Secretary shall set 

16 aside and distribute not less than 5 percent of 

17 amounts made available for each fiscal year to carry 

18 out this section to provide financial assistance— 

19 ‘‘(A) to Indian Tribes; or 

20 ‘‘(B) directly to manufacturers located in 

21 Indian Country or, in the case of Alaska, an 

22 Alaska Native Village Statistical Area, as iden23 tified by the U.S. Census Bureau, for energy 

24 studies and implementation of the measures 


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1 and recommendations identified in such energy 

2 studies, as described in subsection (b)(1)(B). 

3 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.— 

4 ‘‘(A) ENERGY STUDIES; ADMINISTRATIVE

5 EXPENSES.—A State energy agency or Indian 

6 Tribe that receives financial assistance pursu7 ant to this section for a fiscal year may not— 

8 ‘‘(i) use more than 50 percent of such 

9 financial assistance for energy studies; 

10 ‘‘(ii) use more than 50 percent of such 

11 financial assistance to support the imple12 mentation of recommendations from such 

13 energy studies; and 

14 ‘‘(iii) use more than 10 percent of 

15 such financial assistance for administrative 

16 expenses, including for outreach and tech17 nical assistance. 

18 ‘‘(B) INDIVIDUAL MANUFACTURING FACIL19 ITY.—A State energy agency that receives fi20 nancial assistance pursuant to this section for 

21 a fiscal year may not use more than the greater 

22 of $100,000 or 5 percent of such financial as23 sistance with respect to an individual manufac24 turing facility. 


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1 ‘‘(4) SUPPLEMENT.—Financial assistance pro2 vided to a State energy agency or Indian Tribe pur3 suant to this section shall be used to supplement, 

4 not supplant, any Federal, State, or other funds oth5 erwise made available to such State under this part. 

6 ‘‘(5) FINANCING.—To the extent practicable, a 

7 State energy agency or Indian Tribe shall implement 

8 a flex-tech energy program described in subsection 

9 (b) using funding provided under this Act, public fi10 nancing, private financing, or any other sources of 

11 funds. 

12 ‘‘(d) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Upon request of a State 

14 energy agency or Indian Tribe, the Secretary shall 

15 provide information and technical assistance in the 

16 development, implementation, improvement, or ex17 pansion of a flex-tech energy program described in 

18 subsection (b). 

19 ‘‘(2) INCLUSIONS.—Technical assistance pro20 vided pursuant to paragraph (1) may include pro21 gram design options to, with respect to manufactur22 ers that employ fewer than 500 full-time equivalent 

23 employees at a manufacturing facility— 

24 ‘‘(A) meet the needs of such manufactur25 ers; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) encourage the use of advanced manu2 facturing processes by such manufacturers, in3 cluding use of additive manufacturing, ad4 vanced sensors and controls, techniques to re5 duce embedded emissions, and advanced com6 posite materials. 

7 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 ‘‘(1) INDIAN COUNTRY.—The term ‘Indian 

9 Country’ means— 

10 ‘‘(A) all land within the limits of any In11 dian reservation under the jurisdiction of the 

12 United States Government, notwithstanding the 

13 issuance of any patent, and, including rights-of14 way running through the reservation; 

15 ‘‘(B) all dependent Indian communities 

16 within the borders of the United States whether 

17 within the original or subsequently acquired ter18 ritory thereof, and whether within or without 

19 the limits of a State; and 

20 ‘‘(C) all Indian allotments, the Indian ti21 tles to which have not been extinguished, in22 cluding rights-of-way running through the 

23 same. 

24 ‘‘(2) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian Tribe’ 

25 has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 


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1 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 

2 Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 

3 ‘‘(3) STATE ENERGY AGENCY.—The term ‘State 

4 energy agency’ has the meaning given such term in 

5 section 391(10).’’. 

6 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con7 tents for the Energy Policy and Conservation Act is 

8 amended by adding after the item related to section 366 

9 the following: 

‘‘Sec. 367. Flex-tech energy program to enhance manufacturing competitiveness.’’. 

10 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 

11 365(f) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 

12 U.S.C. 6325(f)) is amended by adding at the end the fol13 lowing: 

14 ‘‘(3) FLEX-TECH ENERGY PROGRAM.—In addi15 tion to the authorization of appropriations under 

16 paragraph (1), for the purposes of carrying out sec17 tion 367, there are authorized to be appropriated 

18 $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 

19 2029.’’. 

Æ 


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