Hydropower Construction Deadline Extensions and License Reinstatement Under Federal Power Act

1. 1020 119CONGRESS TH1S STESSION

AN ACT

To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend the time period during which licensees are re- quired to commence construction of certain hydropower projects.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF TIME TO COMMENCE CON-1 STRUCTION OF CERTAIN HYDROPOWER 2 PROJECTS. 3

.--In this sec-4(a) DPEEFINITION OFCOVEREDEROJECT tion, the term ''covered project'' means a hydropower 5 project with respect to which the Federal Energy Regu-6 latory Commission issued a license before March 13, 2020. 7 .--Notwith-8(b) AUTHORIZATION OFXTENSION standing section 13 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 9 806), on the request of a licensee of a covered project, 10 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may, after 11 reasonable notice and for good cause shown, extend in ac-12 cordance with subsection (c) the period during which the 13 licensee is required to commence construction of the cov-14 ered project for not more than an additional 6 years be-15 yond the 8 years authorized by that section. 16 .--An extension of time 17(c) PERIOD OFXTENSION to commence construction of a covered project under sub-18 section (b) shall-- 19 (1) consist of not more than 3 consecutive 2- 20 year periods; 21 (2) begin on the date on which the final exten-22 sion of the period for commencement of construction 23 granted to the licensee under section 13 of the Fed-24 eral Power Act (16 U.S.C. 806) expires; and 25

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(3) end on the date that is not more than 6 1 years after the latest date to which the Federal En-2 ergy Regulatory Commission is authorized to extend 3 the period for commencement of construction under 4 that section. 5 .--If the 6(d) R E LEINSTATEMENT OF XPIRED ICENSE time period required under section 13 of the Federal 7 Power Act (16 U.S.C. 806) to commence construction of 8 a covered project expires after December 31, 2023, and 9 before the date of enactment of this Act-- 10 (1) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 11 may reinstate the license for the applicable project 12 effective as of the date of expiration of the license; 13 and 14 (2) the extension authorized under subsection 15 (b) shall take effect on the date of that expiration. 16 Passed the Senate July 29, 2025. Attest:

Secretary.

† S 1020 ES

To require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis- 119 certain hydropower projects. censees are required to commence construction of sion to extend the time period during which li- 1 TH ST CONGRESS S

ESSION

AN ACT S. 1020