II
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2006
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 3, 2007
Ms. Landrieu introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
September 17, 2007
Committee discharged; referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To provide for disaster assistance for power transmission and distribution facilities, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as
the Rate Payer Recovery Act of
2007
.
Disaster assistance for power transmission and distribution facilities
Private or investor-owned power facility defined
Section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122) is amended by adding at the end the following:
Private or investor-owned power facility
The term private or investor-owned power facility—
means a privately-owned or investor-owned transmission or distribution facility that provides electric or natural gas service to retail customers under State or local jurisdiction; and
includes leased facilities.
.
Conditions for contributions
Section 406(a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5172(a)) is amended—
in paragraph (1)—
in subparagraph
(A), by striking and
at the end;
in subparagraph
(B), by striking the period and inserting ; and
; and
by adding at the end the following:
subject to paragraph (4), to a person that owns a private or investor-owned power facility damaged or destroyed by a major disaster for the repair, restoration, reconstruction, or replacement of the facility and for associated expenses incurred by the person.
;
by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and
by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
Conditions for assistance to private or investor-owned power facilities
Definition
In this paragraph, the term previous major disaster means a major disaster—
occurring before the disaster for which Federal assistance is sought under this subsection; and
the declaration of which was not more than 10 years before the date of the declaration of the major disaster for which Federal assistance is sought under this subsection.
Conditioned on previous event
The President may make contributions to the owner of a private or investor-owned power facility under paragraph (1)(C), only if—
the cost of repairing, restoring, or replacing the private or investor-owned power facilities damaged or destroyed by the previous major disaster exceeded $2,500 for each retail customer receiving electrical or natural gas service from the owner on the day before the date of the previous disaster;
the total costs of repair, restoration, or replacement of all private or investor-owned power facilities owned by such person and associated expenses as a result of the previous major disaster exceeded $500,000,000; and
25 percent or more of the population, as determined by the Bureau of the Census, of each geographic area of each local government in which the private or investor-owned power facility is located, had taxable income in the year preceding the previous major disaster below the Federal poverty level on the date of the previous major disaster.
Application for funds
A person that owns a private or investor-owned power facility that meets the requirements under subparagraph (B) may apply for Federal assistance not later than the earlier of—
30 days after declaration of a major disaster; or
the date upon which the owner of the private or investor-owned power facility has contributed $10,000,000 towards the total costs of repair, restoration, or replacement of the private or investor-owned power facility damaged or destroyed as a result of the major disaster for which it requests Federal assistance.
Limit on Federal assistance for disaster relief
Federal assistance under this section to the owner of a private or investor-owned power facility shall only apply to eligible costs and expenses directly incurred by the owner exceeding $10,000,000.
Aggregation for purposes of determining costs
For purposes of determining the costs of a previous major disaster under this paragraph, the costs of all previous major disasters during any 12-month period shall be aggregated.
Approval or disapproval of applications
The President shall approve or disapprove an application for assistance submitted by a person under this paragraph not later than 30 days after the date of receipt of the application.
.
Federal share
Section 406(b)(2) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5172(b)(2)) is amended by striking
public facility or private nonprofit facility
and inserting
public facility, private nonprofit facility, or private or
investor-owned power facility
.
Large in-lieu contributions
Section 406(c) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5172(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
For private or investor-owned power facilities
In general
In any case in which a person that owns a private or investor-owned power facility determines that the public welfare would not best be served by repairing, restoring, reconstructing, or replacing the facility, the person may elect to receive, in lieu of a contribution under subsection (a)(1)(C), a contribution in an amount equal to 75 percent of the Federal share of the Federal estimate of the cost of repairing, restoring, reconstructing, or replacing the facility and of management expenses, under the conditions described in subsection (a)(4).
Use of funds
Funds contributed to a person under this paragraph may be used to—
repair, restore, or expand other private or investor-owned power facilities owned by the person;
construct a new private or investor-owned power facility owned by the person; or
fund hazard mitigation measures that the person determines to be necessary to meet a need for the services and functions of the person in the area affected by the major disaster.
.
Eligible cost
Section 406(e)(1)(A) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5172(e)(1)(A)) is amended by
striking public facility or private nonprofit facility
and
inserting public facility, private nonprofit facility, or private or
investor-owned power facility
.
Regulations
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall promulgate regulations necessary to implement this Act and the amendments made by this Act.
Effective date
In general
Except as provided under subsection (b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
Regulations
Section 3 shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.