Ratepayer Protection Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9340 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9340

    To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to
  establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full,
incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for
                            other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 18, 2026

     Mr. Evans of Colorado (for himself and Ms. Castor of Florida)
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

    To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to
  establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full,
incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for
                            other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ratepayer Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL STANDARD RELATING TO LARGE-LOAD CUSTOMERS.

    (a) Federal Standard Relating to Large-load Customers.--Section
111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C.
2621(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(22) Standards for large-load customers.--
                    ``(A) Recovery of full, incremental cost of
                upgrades.--A rate charged, or entered into, by an
                electric utility for providing electric service to a
                large-load customer shall be designed to recover from
                the large-load customer the full, incremental cost of
                any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade
                necessary to serve the load of such large-load
                customer, including in the event of such large-load
                customer terminating a contract or other agreement with
                the electric utility pertaining to the sale of electric
                energy, or otherwise ceasing the purchase of electric
                energy from the electric utility.
                    ``(B) Financial assurances and contributions.--
                Before making any generation, transmission, or
                distribution upgrade that is necessary to serve the
                load of a large-load customer, an electric utility
                shall require the large-load customer provide to the
                electric utility financial assurances or contributions
                to cover the cost of such upgrade.
                    ``(C) Large-load customer defined.--In this
                paragraph, the term `large-load customer' means a non-
                residential electric consumer that, on or after the
                date of the enactment of this paragraph, requests to
                enter into, or enters into, a contract or other
                agreement pertaining to the sale of electric energy for
                one or more facilities that have, in the aggregate, a
                peak electric demand of 100 megawatts or more at a
                single site or campus.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--
            (1) Obligations to consider and determine.--Section 112 of
        the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C.
        2622) is amended--
                    (A) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the
                following:
            ``(9)(A) Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment
        of this paragraph, each State regulatory authority (with
        respect to each electric utility for which the State has
        ratemaking authority) and each nonregulated electric utility
        shall commence consideration under section 111, or set a
        hearing date for consideration, with respect to the standard
        established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d).
            ``(B) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of
        this paragraph, each State regulatory authority (with respect
        to each electric utility for which the State has ratemaking
        authority) and each nonregulated electric utility shall
        complete the consideration and make the determination under
        section 111 with respect to the standard established by
        paragraph (22) of section 111(d).'';
                    (B) in subsection (c)--
                            (i) by striking ``subsection (b)(2)'' and
                        inserting ``subsection (b)''; and
                            (ii) by inserting ``In the case of the
                        standard established by paragraph (22) of
                        section 111(d), the reference contained in this
                        subsection to the date of enactment of this Act
                        shall be deemed to be a reference to the date
                        of enactment of that paragraph (22).'' after
                        ``paragraph (21).''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i) Other Prior State Actions.--Subsections (b) and (c) shall not
apply to the standard established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d)
in the case of any electric utility in a State if, before the date of
enactment of this subsection--
            ``(1) the State has implemented for the electric utility
        the standard (or a comparable standard);
            ``(2) the State regulatory authority for the State or the
        relevant nonregulated electric utility has conducted a
        proceeding to consider implementation of the standard (or a
        comparable standard) for the electric utility; or
            ``(3) the State legislature has voted on the implementation
        of the standard (or a comparable standard) for the electric
        utility.''.
            (2) Prior and pending proceedings.--Section 124 of the
        Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2634)
        is amended by adding at the end the following: ``In the case of
        the standard established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d),
        the reference contained in this section to the date of
        enactment of this Act shall be deemed to be a reference to the
        date of enactment of that paragraph (22).''.
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