[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5028 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 5028
To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to
establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full,
incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 16, 2026
Mr. Husted introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to
establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full,
incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, 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 ``Ratepayer Protection Act''.
SEC. 2. FEDERAL STANDARD RELATING TO LARGE-LOAD CUSTOMERS.
(a) In General.--Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory
Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2621(d)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``(22) Standards for large-load customers.--
``(A) Definition of large-load customer.--In this
paragraph, the term `large-load customer' means a non-
residential electric consumer that, on or after the
date of enactment of this paragraph, requests to enter
into, or enters into, a contract or other agreement
pertaining to the sale of electric energy for one or
more facilities that--
``(i) require electric energy primarily to
operate information technology infrastructure
and related systems pertaining to data storage
and computational applications and services;
and
``(ii) have, in the aggregate, a peak
electric demand of 100 megawatts or more at a
single site or campus.
``(B) Recovery of full, incremental cost of
upgrades.--A rate charged, or entered into, by an
electric utility for providing electric service to a
large-load customer shall be designed to recover from
the large-load customer the full, incremental cost of
any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade
necessary to serve the load of such large-load
customer, including in the event of the large-load
customer--
``(i) terminating a contract or other
agreement with the electric utility pertaining
to the sale of electric energy; or
``(ii) otherwise ceasing the purchase of
electric energy from the electric utility.
``(C) Financial assurances and contributions.--
Before making any generation, transmission, or
distribution upgrade that is necessary to serve the
load of a large-load customer, an electric utility
shall require the large-load customer provide to the
electric utility financial assurances or contributions
to cover the cost of such upgrade.''.
(b) Obligations To Consider and Determine.--Section 112 of the
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2622) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the following:
``(9)(A) Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
paragraph, each State regulatory authority (with respect to each
electric utility for which the State has ratemaking authority) and each
nonregulated electric utility shall commence consideration under
section 111, or set a hearing date for consideration, with respect to
the standard established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d).
``(B) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this
paragraph, each State regulatory authority (with respect to each
electric utility for which the State has ratemaking authority) and each
nonregulated electric utility shall complete the consideration and make
the determination under section 111 with respect to the standard
established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d).'';
(2) in subsection (c)--
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ``subsection
(b)(2)'' and inserting ``subsection (b)''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following: ``In the
case of the standard established by paragraph (22) of
section 111(d), the reference contained in this
subsection to the date of enactment of this Act shall
be deemed to be a reference to the date of enactment of
that paragraph (22).''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(i) Other Prior State Actions.--Subsections (b) and (c) shall not
apply to the standard established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d)
in the case of any electric utility in a State if, before the date of
enactment of this subsection--
``(1) the State has implemented for the electric utility
the standard (or a comparable standard);
``(2) the State regulatory authority for the State or the
relevant nonregulated electric utility has conducted a
proceeding to consider implementation of the standard (or a
comparable standard) for the electric utility; or
``(3) the State legislature has voted on the implementation
of the standard (or a comparable standard) for the electric
utility.''.
(c) Prior and Pending Proceedings.--Section 124 of the Public
Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2634) is amended by
adding at the end the following: ``In the case of the standard
established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d), the reference
contained in this section to the date of enactment of this Act shall be
deemed to be a reference to the date of enactment of that paragraph
(22).''.
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