S. 4337 — No Big Fossil Bailouts on Your Power Bill Act

This section revises the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) emergency authority under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act—originally authorizing orders to generate, transmit, or deliver electric energy during supply shortages, disruptions, or other causes, with or without notice—to narrow emergency triggers to supply shortages or disruptions only and impose additional procedural requirements, as follows: (1) requires FERC, before issuing an order, to consider alternatives that meet the emergency and minimize adverse environmental impacts; (2) for orders that conflict or may conflict with federal, state, or local environmental laws— (a) requires advance public hearings before renewing or reissuing, determinations of ratepayer impacts and environmental conflicts, and consultations with relevant state/local agencies and federal agencies; (b) expands conditions imposed by agencies to include rate impacts and requires cost estimates; and (c) deems subsequent orders for the same facility and substantially similar emergency as renewals subject to these requirements; (3) prohibits orders that prevent or delay retirement/permanent closure of generation facilities or require generation from closed facilities, absent a written request from the applicable transmission organization and no other means to meet the emergency; and (4) requires public online dockets and website notices for proposed orders (including any transmission organization requests); publication of final orders with reports analyzing emergency causes, alternatives (including environmentally preferable ones), and expected utility/customer costs (with full compliance required for renewals); and written customer notices from affected utilities within 60 days detailing order impacts and access instructions.