Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act
Latest action · Jun 3, 2013 By Senator Wyden from Committee on Energy and Natural Resources filed written report. Report No. 113-35.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedFeb 13, 2013
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act - Amends the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 to authorize the Secretary of the Interior (acting through the Bureau of Reclamation) to contract for the development of small conduit hydropower at Bureau facilities.
Defines: (1) "small conduit hydropower" as 5 megawatts or less; and (2) "conduit" as a tunnel, canal, pipeline, aqueduct, flume, ditch, or similar manmade water conveyance.
Requires that power privilege leases be offered first to an irrigation district or water users association operating or receiving water from the applicable transferred or reserved conduit.
Defines: (1) reserved conduit as any conduit included in project works whose care, operation, and maintenance has been reserved by the Secretary (through the Bureau); and (2) transferred conduit as any conduit included in project works whose care, operation, and maintenance has been transferred to a legally organized water users association or irrigation district.
Requires the Secretary, if the irrigation district or water users association elects not accept a lease of power privilege offer, to offer it to other parties.
Directs the Bureau to apply its categorical exclusion process under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) to small conduit hydropower development, except with respect to siting of associated transmission facilities on federal lands.
(A "categorical exclusion" under NEPA is a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a federal agency in implementing environmental regulations and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required.)
Makes the Bureau's Power Resources Office the lead office for such small conduit hydropower policy and procedure-setting activities. (Thus excludes such activities from the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC].)
Declares that nothing in this Act shall: (1) obligate specified power administrations to purchase or market the power produced by such facilities; (2) alter or impede the delivery and management of water for original project purposes; (3) alter or affect any existing agreements for conduit hydropower development projects or disposition of revenues; or (4) alter or affect any existing preliminary permit, license, or exemption issued by FERC or any project for which an application has been filed with FERC as of the date of the enactment of this Act. Deems water used for conduit hydropower generation to be incidental to use of water for the original project purposes.
Cosponsors 4
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Feb 13, 2013 to Apr 16, 2013, with 3 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-ID | James E. Risch | Original | Feb 13, 2013 |
| R-WY | Michael B. Enzi | Original | Feb 13, 2013 |
| R-ID | Mike Crapo | Original | Feb 13, 2013 |
| R-AZ | Jeff Flake | Apr 16, 2013 |
Actions 7
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jun 3, 2013By Senator Wyden from Committee on Energy and Natural Resources filed written report. Report No. 113-35.
- May 13, 2013Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Reported by Senator Wyden with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.
- May 13, 2013Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 68.
- May 8, 2013Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
- Apr 23, 2013Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 113-24.
Related bills 3
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 2 | American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act | Related bill | Nov 17, 2014 |
| HR 678 | Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act | Identical bill | Aug 9, 2013 |
| HR 1963 | Bureau of Reclamation Conduit Hydropower Development Equity and Jobs Act | Related bill | Jul 31, 2014 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Energy.
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- May 13, 2013Reported to Senate
- Feb 13, 2013Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.