Rural Jobs and Hydropower Expansion Act

This bill changes a 1939 federal water law so that non-federal developers can seek leases to build hydropower at all Bureau of Reclamation facilities, not only small conduits and reservoirs used for pumped storage. It changes the rule for water used for hydropower at these sites from being treated as "incidental" to other project uses to being treated as "secondary" to them. It moves the cutoff date for which Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permits stay in effect to the date this bill becomes law, and says that once such a permit becomes inactive, the Bureau of Reclamation alone has authority over the site. It also states that the Bureau's leasing authority does not extend outside project boundaries and replaces the term "conduit" with new definitions of transferred and reserved works facilities.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Lauren Boebert Republican sponsor
• 1 cosponsors