Senate advances water infrastructure, hydropower package
The U.S. Senate recently passed S. 3021, the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, by a vote of 99-1, sending to President Trump for his signature.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Subcommittee on Environment Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) and Subcommittee on Energy Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) released the following statement.
“Without question, this water infrastructure package is a win for America,” the committee leaders said. “With this bill, we are reauthorizing the Safe Drinking Water Act for the first time in two decades – ensuring our communities have safe, reliable drinking water available. It also promotes hydropower development, which creates clean energy jobs here at home and provides consumers with low-cost, emissions-free electricity. We applaud the Senate for passing this vital legislation and urge President Trump to sign it into law soon.”
This package incorporates substantial portions of H.R. 3387, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act, which the Energy and Commerce Committee approved in July 2017.
It also includes several Energy and Commerce bills that streamline the regulatory permitting process for hydropower projects, remove barriers to hydropower investments and help get new hydropower projects to market faster.
The hydropower bills include H.R. 2880, the Promoting Closed-Loop Pumped Storage Hydropower Act; H.R. 2872, the Promoting Hydropower Development at Existing Nonpowered Dams Act; H.R. 2786, To Amend the Federal Power Act with Respect to the Criteria and Process to Qualify as a Qualifying Conduit Hydropower Facility; and key provisions from H.R. 3043, the Hydropower Policy Modernization Act.
It also includes provisions from H.R. 587, the Fair RATES Act, which the House advanced in January 2017. These provisions increase transparency in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rate process.
