[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1293 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1293

     To establish the Department of Energy as the lead agency for 
    coordinating all requirements under Federal law with respect to 
 eligible clean coal and advanced coal technology generating projects, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 12, 2015

  Ms. Heitkamp (for herself and Mr. Manchin) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To establish the Department of Energy as the lead agency for 
    coordinating all requirements under Federal law with respect to 
 eligible clean coal and advanced coal technology generating projects, 
                        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. COORDINATION OF CLEAN COAL AND ADVANCED COAL TECHNOLOGY 
              GENERATING PROJECTS.

    (a) Definition of Eligible Project.--In this section, the term 
``eligible project'' means--
            (1) any project undertaken to install and operate an 
        advanced carbon capture and storage technology or carbon 
        capture utilization and storage technology at a new or existing 
        steam generating unit; or
            (2) any project designed to increase the efficiency of 
        converting coal to useful energy or to a feedstock for the 
        manufacture of other products.
    (b) Lead Agency.--The Department of Energy shall be the lead agency 
for the purposes of coordinating all requirements under Federal law 
with respect to eligible projects, including any requirements of--
            (1) the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.);
            (2) the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 
        et seq.);
            (3) the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
        seq.);
            (4) the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 
        U.S.C. 4321 et seq.); and
            (5) the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.).
    (c) Schedule.--In carrying out subsection (b), the Secretary of 
Energy shall establish a schedule for all Federal authorizations with 
respect to each eligible project, including by--
            (1) setting binding intermediate milestones and deadlines 
        to ensure expeditious completion of all proceedings and final 
        action on all Federal authorizations relating to the eligible 
        project;
            (2) requiring that all permit decisions and related 
        environmental reviews under applicable Federal law shall be 
        completed not later than 1 year after the date on which a 
        complete application for each environmental review is 
        submitted, or as soon as practicable thereafter; and
            (3) coordinating, to the maximum extent practicable, any 
        State permitting and environmental requirements.
    (d) Memoranda of Understanding.--To streamline and expedite review 
of Federal authorizations for eligible projects, the Secretary of 
Energy shall--
            (1) enter into memoranda of understanding with applicable 
        Federal agencies;
            (2) facilitate a pre-application review process with 
        applicable Federal agencies; and
            (3) consolidate all environmental reviews of the eligible 
        project into a single environmental review document.
    (e) Judicial Review.--With respect to an application for Federal 
authorization relating to an eligible project, the applicable Federal 
circuit court may review and remedy--
            (1) any failure by a Federal agency to complete action on 
        the application by the date that is 1 year after the date on 
        which the complete application was submitted to the agency; and
            (2) any issuance of an action or order by a Federal agency 
        with respect to the application that is inconsistent with 
        applicable Federal law.
                                 <all>