mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
in 1998 congress set a goal for 2005 to improve the energy efficiency in congressional buildings by 20 percent . 
and i know that the architect of the capitol has been working very hard to reach the goal . 
however , we have not . 
yet the skyrocketing gasoline prices remind us that we must do more for conservation . 
i am disappointed that the underlying legislation gives 94 percent of its benefits to the oil and gas industry and only 6 percent to conservation and renewable efforts . 
my amendment , i think , is a good start at least on some conservation . 
it would simply require that any new escalator being installed in federal buildings to be an intermittent escalator . 
these have been in use in europe for 30 or 40 years ; and i know that when i first saw one , i could hardly believe it . 
it does not begin until the passenger steps on a pad entering into the escalator and stops when the passengers are off . 
we would save about 40 percent of the fuel costs , the electricity costs , the energy costs . 
but in addition to that , what we would save simply on the wear and tear , the pure mechanics of the escalator , probably would be even higher than the energy savings . 
mr. chairman , the traditional escalators are used more than 90 billion times a year in the united states ; and with more than 30 , 000 of them across the country , escalators move more people than airplanes . 
and since almost all of them are out of order a good percentage of the time , we know that it is important that we do something to conserve that kind of money and the investment we have made in the escalators . 
as i pointed out , the amount of energy consumed is estimated to be 260 million kilowatts an hour , which we would save a cost to the nation , if all of them were intermittent , of $ 260 million a year . 
i want to quote an analyst at lawrence livermore national laboratory . 
the intermittent escalators , says lawrence livermore , are 40 to 50 percent more energy efficient than traditional escalators . 
this was borne out by a case study supplied to me from the german embassy , which found 40 percent savings in germany . 
energy can be particularly saved when the escalator is used only during rush hours . 
replacing all of them would save us an awful lot of money , but this bill does not replace them all . 
it simply requires that new escalators be of the intermittent variety . 
and i strongly hope that we will accept this amendment this evening as part of this energy bill . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
