[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7595 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7595

  To amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act to provide for further 
transparency of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 8, 2024

Mr. Cohen (for himself and Mr. Burchett) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act to provide for further 
transparency of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 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 ``TVA Increase Rate of Participation 
Act'' or the ``TVA IRP Act''.

SEC. 2. OFFICE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

    The Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933 (16 U.S.C. 831k-1) is 
amended by inserting after section 12a the following:

``SEC. 12B. OFFICE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

    ``(a) Establishment.--There is established in the Corporation an 
Office of Public Participation to engage with the public through direct 
outreach and education to facilitate greater understanding of the 
processes of the Authority and solicit broader participation in matters 
of the Authority affecting the public.
    ``(b) Hiring.--Hiring authority for the Office of Public 
Participation shall lay with the Board and such authority may not be 
delegated to Corporation staff.
    ``(c) Duties.--The Office of Public Participation established under 
subsection (a) shall--
            ``(1) act as a liaison to members of the public affected by 
        and interested in Corporation proceedings, by providing ongoing 
        process information on individual proceedings and responding to 
        requests for technical assistance;
            ``(2) coordinate with other program offices of the 
        Corporation to improve, or, as appropriate, make 
        recommendations to improve processes in a manner responsive to 
        public input, with the goal of ensuring processes are 
        inclusive, fair, and easy to navigate; and
            ``(3) with public participation and feedback, create and 
        facilitate a process not later than 1 year after the date of 
        enactment of this section, for meaningful and open public 
        engagement in the Authority's integrated resource planning 
        process, including opportunities for intervention, discovery, 
        filed comments or testimony, and an evidentiary hearing.
    ``(d) Public Participation in Integrated Resource Planning 
Process.--The process required under subsection (b)(3) shall include--
            ``(1) a public comment period that begins not later than 
        100 days before release of a draft of an integrated resource 
        plan and ends on the last day of the evidentiary hearing for 
        such plan; and
            ``(2) a requirement for a response to any request for 
        discovery from an intervenor not later than 15 days after such 
        request is submitted.''.

SEC. 3. INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLAN.

    (a) In General.--In drafting an integrated resource plan pursuant 
to section 113 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (16 U.S.C. 831m-1), the 
Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority shall--
            (1) oversee the process for meaningful and open public 
        engagement in the integrated resource planning process 
        established under section 12b of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
        Act of 1933 (as added by this Act), including presiding over 
        any evidentiary hearing required under such process;
            (2) include in such plan--
                    (A) a long-term forecast of the Authority's sales 
                and peak demand under various reasonable scenarios;
                    (B) a summary of electrical transmission 
                investments planned by the Authority;
                    (C) resource portfolios developed with the purpose 
                of fairly evaluating the range of demand-side and 
                supply-side technologies and services available to meet 
                the Authority's service obligations; and
                    (D) sensitivity analysis related to fuel costs, 
                environmental regulations, electrification, distributed 
                energy resources, and other uncertainties or risks;
            (3) not later than 100 days before the public release of a 
        draft of the plan, provide to the public the modeling 
        assumptions used in developing such a plan, including costs and 
        constraints on the model;
            (4) provide in such draft plan details of how and where 
        public input informed the plan;
            (5) evaluate whether the draft plan takes into account the 
        features required under section 113(b)(2) of the Energy Policy 
        Act of 1992 (16 U.S.C. 831m-1); and
            (6) issue a decision to approve, deny, or require 
        modifications to such draft plan as necessary based on the 
        evaluation under paragraph (5) and public input provided 
        through the public comment period and evidentiary hearing 
        required under section 12b of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
        Act of 1933 (as added by this Act).
    (b) Tennessee Valley Authority Least-Cost Planning Program.--
Section 113(b)(2)(A) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (16 U.S.C. 831m-
1) is amended by inserting ``resilience, extreme weather risk, impacts 
to public health,'' after ``dispatchability''.
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