Assuring Abundant, Reliable American Energy to Power Innovation: U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy Hearing Reviewing 14 Bills

The United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held an April 25th hearing titled:

Assuring Abundant, Reliable American Energy to Power Innovation (“Hearing”).

The stated purpose of the Hearing was to:

…discuss legislation that would help our nation create affordable and reliable energy in order to maintain our grid and power new technologies. 

The Hearing discussed the following legislation:

• H.R. ­­­____, Reliable Power Act (would amend the Federal Power Act to provide for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission review of certain federal regulations that may affect the reliable operation of the bulk power system).
• H.R. 1047, GRID Power Act (would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a rulemaking to require transmission providers to prioritize and expedite interconnection queue requests for dispatchable generation projects and projects that enhance grid resilience and reliability).
• H.R. ____, Power Plant Reliability Act of 2025 (would enhance authority under Section 207 of the Federal Power Act to allow affected parties to contest the requirement of generation resources, for a five-year period, in the event that a retirement causes harm to reliability of the bulk power system).
• H.R. ____, Electric Supply Chain Act (would direct the Department of Energy to conduct periodic assessments of trends, risks, and vulnerabilities in the supply chain for electric generation and transmission infrastructure and grid components).
• H.R. ____, Reliability Protection for States Act (would amend Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 to require each state regulatory authority to consider implementing regulations to evaluate the reliability and resource adequacy impacts of complying with renewable portfolio standards, clean energy standards, or other state policies that require utilities to designate a share of their electricity sold to be generated from intermittent resources).
• H.R. ____, State Planning for Reliability and Affordability Act (would amend Section 111(d) of PURPA to require each state regulatory authority to consider implementing requirements for utilities to analyze their reliable generation portfolio as part of their integrated resources plans over a ten-year planning period).
• H.R. ____, Hydropower Relicensing Transparency Act (would require FERC to report periodically to Congress on the status of relicensing applications for hydropower dams, in order to assess the availability of baseload generation and prevent premature retirements of baseload hydropower generation).
• H.R. ____, National Coal Council Reestablishment Act (would reestablish and codify the National Coal Council).
• H.R. ____, Securing America’s Critical Minerals Supply Act (would amend the Department of Energy Organization Act to require the Secretary of Energy to conduct an ongoing assessment of the nation’s supply of critical energy resources, the vulnerability of the critical resource supply chain, and the energy security considerations of critical energy resources and development of energy technologies).
• H.R. ____, Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining (REFINER) Act (would require the Secretary of Energy to direct the National Petroleum Council to issue a report examining the importance of petrochemical refineries to energy security).
• H.R. ____, Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act (would establish a more uniform, transparent, and modern process to authorize the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of international border-crossing facilities for the import and export of oil and natural gas and the transmission of electricity).
• H.R. 1949, Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2025 (would amend the Natural Gas Act to repeal all restrictions on the import and export of natural gas).
• H.R. ____, Improving Interagency Coordination for Review of Natural Gas Pipelines Act (would improve coordination among federal and state agencies reviewing applications for the construction of interstate and natural gas pipelines).
• H.R. ____, Expediting Generator Interconnection Procedures Act of 2025 (would direct FERC to promulgate regulations that accelerate interconnection requests for electric generation and storage resources to the transmission system).

Witnesses at the Hearing included:

• Mike Goff, Acting Undersecretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
• David L. Morenoff, Acting General Counsel, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Terry Turpin, Director, Office of Energy Projects, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Jim Matheson, Chief Executive Officer, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Amy Andryszak, President & Chief Executive Officer, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America
• Todd A. Snitchler, President & Chief Executive Officer, Electric Power Supply Association
• Kim Smaczniak, Partner, Roselle LLP 

A link to a memorandum to the Subcommittee Members from the Majority Committee Staff can be found here, and a link to the witnesses’ written statements can be found here.