“To amend the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 to encourage non-Federal hydropower development with respect to Bureau of Reclamation projects.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section expands the Secretary of the Interior's authority under the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 to contract for hydropower generation using all Bureau of Reclamation facilities (from small conduit hydropower using those facilities and pumped storage hydropower exclusively using Reclamation reservoirs). (As background, this authority allows non-FERC-licensed hydropower development at Reclamation water infrastructure.) It further (1) replaces "small conduit" terminology throughout with "applicable transferred works facility" or "applicable reserved works facility"; (2) defines reserved works facility (Bureau-owned facilities where the Bureau retains operation and maintenance responsibility) and transferred works facility (facilities operated and maintained by non-federal entities under contract); (3) updates the effective date to the date of enactment of the Rural Jobs and Hydropower Expansion Act (from August 9, 2013); (4) provides that any Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authorization for a project remains in place until inactive, may be renewed if allowed by FERC, and then shifts project site jurisdiction exclusively to the Bureau; and (5) clarifies that the section does not expand Bureau lease of power privilege authorities outside project boundaries.