H.R. 3628 would amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require state regulatory authorities, within two years of enactment, to determine whether electric utilities must operate or procure electricity from reliable generation facilities as part of their integrated resource planning. A reliable generation facility is one capable of generating or procuring power without interruption for at least 30 consecutive days, including during extreme weather conditions.
Enacting the bill would not change federal responsibilities; thus, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3628 would not affect the federal budget.
H.R. 3628 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by requiring state utility commissions to decide whether to include a reliability component in their integrated resource plans. The requirement would expand an existing intergovernmental mandate by increasing those entities’ responsibilities under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. CBO estimates that the mandate would result in a small incremental increase in administrative costs that would not exceed the threshold established in UMRA for intergovernmental mandates ($103 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).
The bill would not impose private-sector mandates as defined in UMRA.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Emilia Oliva (for federal costs) and Brandon Lever (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
