As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on May 16, 2013
H.R. 316 would authorize the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reinstate the licenses and extend the deadline for beginning construction of two hydroelectric projects (numbers 10822 and 10823) in Hartford County, Connecticut. The legislation would direct FERC to update the environmental analyses associated with those projects and, if reinstated, authorize the agency to transfer the licenses to the town of Canton, Connecticut.
Based on information from FERC, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 316 would have a small impact on the agency’s workload. Because FERC recovers 100 percent of its costs through user fees, any change in its administrative costs would be offset by an equal change in fees that the commission charges. Therefore, the legislation’s provisions would have no net budgetary impact. Because FERC’s administrative costs are controlled through annual appropriation acts, enacting H.R. 316 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
H.R. 316 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
On January 31, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 316 as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on January 22, 2013. The two versions of the legislation are similar, and the CBO cost estimates are the same.