[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1235 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1235

To amend the Federal Power Act to permit States to exempt projects from 
certain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considerations in issuing 
                      licenses for such projects.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 18, 2013

 Mrs. Hartzler (for herself, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Lankford, Mr. 
   Graves of Missouri, and Mr. Griffith of Virginia) 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 exempt projects from 
certain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission considerations in issuing 
                      licenses for such projects.

    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 FERC 
              CONSIDERATIONS IN LICENSING.

    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 may not consider public use and environmental purposes in 
issuing a license 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 was issued while such law was in effect.
    ``(4) Paragraph (2) shall not apply to any project or portion of a 
project on Federal land.''.
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