[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3834 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3834

  To direct the Secretary of Energy to make incentive payments to the 
 owners or operators of qualified desalination facilities to partially 
     offset the cost of electrical energy required to operate such 
                  facilities, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 25, 2004

   Mr. Davis of Florida (for himself, Mrs. Wilson of New Mexico, Mr. 
   Hastings of Florida, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Case, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of 
Florida, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Issa, Mr. 
 Green of Texas, Mr. Foley, Mr. Filner, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Ms. Corrine 
Brown of Florida, Mr. Mica, Mrs. Davis of California, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-
  Balart of Florida, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Doolittle, and Mr. 
    Pombo) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                         Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the Secretary of Energy to make incentive payments to the 
 owners or operators of qualified desalination facilities to partially 
     offset the cost of electrical energy required to operate such 
                  facilities, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Desalination Energy Assistance Act 
of 2004''.

SEC. 2. DESALINATED WATER PRODUCTION INCENTIVE PAYMENTS.

    (a) Incentive Payments.--The Secretary of Energy (in this section 
referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall make incentive payments in an 
amount determined under subsection (e) to the owners or operators of 
qualified desalination facilities to partially offset the cost of 
electrical energy required to operate such facilities.
    (b) Qualified Desalination Facility.--For purposes of this section, 
the term ``qualified desalination facility'' means a facility that--
            (1) produces for sale to domestic customers desalinated 
        seawater, brackish groundwater, or surface water whose source 
        water is greater than 1,000 parts per million total dissolved 
        solids;
            (2) is owned or operated by--
                    (A) a State or any political subdivision, agency, 
                authority, or instrumentality of a State; or
                    (B) a corporation responsible for providing 
                municipal water service pursuant to State law; and
            (3) is first used to produce desalinated water during the 
        10-year period beginning on October 1 of the first full fiscal 
        year occurring after the date of the enactment of this section.
    (c) Agreement; Deadline.--The Secretary may not make any payment to 
the owner or operator of a qualified desalination facility under this 
section, unless not later than the end of fiscal year 2015 the 
Secretary enters into a written agreement with the owner or operator to 
make such payment.
    (d) Payment Period.--The Secretary may make payments to the owner 
or operator of a qualified desalination facility under this section for 
a period not to exceed 10 years--
            (1) beginning on the date on which the facility is first 
        used to produce desalinated water; and
            (2) ending not later than September 30, 2015.
    (e) Amount of Payment.--
            (1) In general.--Payments made by the Secretary under this 
        section to the owner or operator of any qualified desalination 
        facility shall be based on the amount of desalinated water 
        produced by the facility during the payment period described in 
        subsection (d). For any facility, the amount of such payment 
        shall be 62 cents for every thousand gallons of desalinated 
        water produced and sold, adjusted as provided in paragraph (2).
            (2) Adjustments.--The amount of the payment made to any 
        person under this subsection as provided in paragraph (1) shall 
        be adjusted for inflation for each fiscal year beginning after 
        calendar year 2005 in the same manner as provided in the 
        provisions of section 29(d)(2)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code 
        of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 29(d)(2)(B)), except that in applying such 
        provisions the calendar year 2005 shall be substituted for 
        calendar year 1979.
    (f) Application.--The Secretary may not make a grant to the owner 
or operator of a qualified desalination facility under this section 
unless the facility submits an application to the Secretary in such 
form, at such time, and containing such information and assurances as 
the Secretary may require.
    (g) Limitation.--In any fiscal year not more than 60 percent of the 
funds made available by the Secretary under this section shall be made 
available to the owners or operators of qualified desalination 
facilities that obtain source water directly from the sea, an estuary, 
or from in-bank extraction wells that are of seawater origin.
    (h) Budget Act Compliance.--The authority provided by this section 
may be exercised only in such amounts or to such extent as provided in 
advance in appropriations Acts.
    (i) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary $200,000,000 to carry out this section 
for the period of fiscal years 2005 through 2015.
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