[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6244 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6244

To amend the Federal Power Act to permit States to prohibit the Federal 
 Energy Regulatory Commission from enforcing certain requirements of a 
                    license, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             August 1, 2012

 Mrs. Hartzler (for herself, Mr. Graves of Missouri, Ms. Jenkins, Mr. 
Lankford, Mr. Cole, Mr. Akin, and Mr. Shimkus) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Power Act to permit States to prohibit the Federal 
 Energy Regulatory Commission from enforcing certain requirements of a 
                    license, 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 ``Leave our Lakes Alone Act''.

SEC. 2. STATE DETERMINATION TO EXEMPT PROJECTS FROM CERTAIN 
              REQUIREMENTS OF A FERC LICENSE.

    Section 4 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 797) is amended by 
adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(h)(1) For the purposes of this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `exempt State' means a State for 
                which a State law is in effect that expressly 
                authorizes paragraph (2) to apply to projects within 
                the State; and
                    ``(B) the term `public use and environmental 
                purposes' means the purposes of energy conservation, 
                the protection, mitigation of damage to, and 
                enhancement of, fish and wildlife (including related 
                spawning grounds and habitat), the protection of 
                recreational opportunities, the preservation of other 
                aspects of environmental quality, and other beneficial 
                public uses, including irrigation, flood control, water 
                supply, and other purposes, as required under 
                subsection (e) and section 10(a), as such purposes 
                apply to land within the project boundary that is above 
                the highest target elevation for normal operations of 
                the project.
            ``(2) Notwithstanding subsection (e) and sections 10(a) and 
        28, the Commission--
                    ``(A) may not consider public use and environmental 
                purposes in issuing a license for a project in an 
                exempt State; and
                    ``(B) may not enforce the requirements of a license 
                regarding public use and environmental purposes for a 
                project in an exempt State.
            ``(3) If a State law described in paragraph (1)(A) is no 
        longer in effect, paragraph (2) shall continue to apply to any 
        project in the State for which a license is issued before the 
        date on which such law ceases to be in effect.
            ``(4) Paragraph (2) shall not apply to any project or 
        portion of a project on Federal land.''.
                                 <all>