II

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1213

To authorize a short-term program of grants to certain electric utilities

to be passed through, in the form of credits toward electric bills, to

consumers that reduce electric energy consumption and to establish an

Electric Energy Conservation Fund to provide loans to utilities and

nonprofit organizations to fund energy productivity projects.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 20, 2001

Ms. CANTWELL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To authorize a short-term program of grants to certain electric utilities to be passed through, in the form of credits

toward electric bills, to consumers that reduce electric

energy consumption and to establish an Electric Energy

Conservation Fund to provide loans to utilities and nonprofit organizations to fund energy productivity projects.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Savings Through En5 ergy Productivity Act’’ or the ‘‘STEP Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

2 In this Act:

3 (1) ELIGIBLE UTILITY.—The term ‘‘eligible

4 utility’’ means an electric utility that, during any

5 12-month period beginning on or after January 1,

6 2000, increased or increases the rates charged to all

7 categories of its customers by a weighted average of

8 20 percent or more in order to cover increases in the

9 cost of generating or acquiring electricity.

10 (2) ENERGY PRODUCTIVITY PROJECT.—The

11 term ‘‘energy productivity project’’ means a project

12 to—

13 (A) construct a facility or install equip14 ment that uses energy-efficient technology in

15 the generation or use of electric energy; or

16 (B) conduct a program, not conducted by

17 the applicant for a grant under section 4 before

18 the date of application for the grant, to increase

19 the productivity of a utility.

20 (3) FUND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the

21 STEP Fund established by section 4.

22 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

23 the Secretary of Energy.

24 (5) UTILITY.—The term ‘‘utility’’ means an

25 electric utility (as defined in section 3 of the Federal

26 Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796)) that is subject to regu-
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1 lation by a State commission (as defined in that sec2 tion).

3 SEC. 3. IMMEDIATE ELECTRIC ENERGY COST RELIEF FOR

4 CONSUMERS THAT REDUCE ENERGY CON5 SUMPTION.

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a

7 program, to be known as the ‘‘STEP Emergency Rebate

8 Program’’, under which the Secretary makes grants to eli9 gible utilities to pay the costs of providing rebates or cred10 its against the amounts of electric bills of customers that

11 reduce the amount of electric energy consumed by the cus12 tomer.

13 (b) CREDITS FOR REDUCTION OF ELECTRIC ENERGY

14 CONSUMPTION.—

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—To receive a grant under

16 subsection (a), an eligible utility shall agree to pro17 vide its customers rebates and credits as provided in

18 this subsection.

19 (2) FIRST PERIOD OF QUALIFICATION.—During

20 the first 12-month period in which a utility customer

21 qualifies for rebates or credits under this section, the

22 customer shall be entitled to a rebate of a portion

23 of the amount of an electric bill paid, or a credit

24 against the amount of an electric bill, for each bill25 ing period, in an amount that is proportionate to the
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1 percentage by which the amount of electric energy

2 consumed by the customer during the billing period

3 is less than the amount consumed during the equiva4 lent billing period in the preceding year (referred to

5 in this section as the ‘‘base billing period’’).

6 (3) SECOND PERIOD OF QUALIFICATION.—Dur7 ing the second 12-month period in which a utility

8 customer qualifies for rebates or credits under this

9 section, the customer shall be entitled to a rebate of

10 a portion of the amount of an electric bill paid, or

11 a credit against the amount of an electric bill, for

12 each billing period, in an amount that is propor13 tionate to the percentage by which the amount of

14 electric energy consumed by the customer during the

15 billing period is less than the amount consumed dur16 ing the base billing period.

17 (4) NEW CUSTOMERS.—In the case of a cus18 tomer to which an eligible utility has sold electric en19 ergy for less than a year, the proportion by which

20 the customer shall be considered to have reduced

21 electric energy consumption during a month shall be

22 determined by comparing the amount of electric en23 ergy consumed by the customer during the month

24 against a local area baseline determined in accord25 ance with regulations promulgated by the Secretary.
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1 (5) PERCENTAGE REDUCTION.—

2 (A) LIMITATION.—A utility customer shall

3 be entitled to a rebate or credit only to the ex4 tent that the percentage described in paragraph

5 (3) or (4) is between 5.0 percent and 20.0 per6 cent, inclusive.

7 (B) ROUNDING.—For the purposes of de8 termining the amount of a rebate or credit, a

9 described in paragraph (3) or (4) shall be

10 rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent.

11 (c) ACTION BY THE SECRETARY.—

12 (1) EXPEDITIOUS RELIEF.—In order to provide

13 energy cost relief to consumers as expeditiously as

14 possible, the Secretary shall act on an application

15 for a grant under subsection (a) within 30 days

16 after receiving the application.

17 (2) FAILURE TO ACT.—If the Secretary fails to

18 act on an application for a grant within 30 days

19 after receiving the application, the application shall

20 be deemed to be granted.

21 (3) DENIAL OF APPLICATION.—If the Secretary

22 denies an application, the Secretary shall include in

23 the denial—

24 (A) a detailed statement of the reasons for

25 the denial; and
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1 (B) a description any action that the appli2 cant may make to obtain approval of the appli3 cation.

4 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be

6 appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry

7 out this section for fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

8 (2) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—The Sec9 retary shall use not more than 5 percent of the

10 amount made available to carry out this section for

11 a fiscal year to pay administrative expenses.

12 (e) CESSATION OF EFFECTIVENESS.—

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—This section ceases to be in

14 effect on October 1, 2003.

15 (2) TRANSFER TO THE FUND.—Any balance of

16 the amounts made available to carry out this section

17 that remain unexpended on September 30, 2003,

18 shall be transferred to the Fund.

19 SEC. 4. STEP FUND.

20 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the

21 Treasury of the United States a revolving fund to be

22 known as the ‘‘STEP Fund’’, consisting of—

23 (1) amounts appropriated to the Fund under

24 subsection (f);
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1 (2) amounts of loans repaid to the Fund under

2 subsection (b)(2)(B);

3 (3) amounts of interest earned on investment of

4 amounts in the Fund under subsection (c); and

5 (4) amounts transferred to the Fund under sec6 tion 3(e)(2).

7 (b) LOAN PROGRAM.—

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish

9 a program under which the Secretary, using

10 amounts in the Fund, makes loans to utilities and

11 nonprofit organizations, at no interest, to pay up to

12 100 percent of the cost of an energy productivity

13 project.

14 (2) REPAYMENT.—

15 (A) SCHEDULE.—The Secretary shall re16 quire repayment of a loan on a schedule that

17 takes into account the length of time that will

18 be required for the amount of savings that is

19 expected to be realized from an energy produc20 tivity project to equal the cost of the energy

21 productivity project.

22 (B) DEPOSIT IN FUND.—The Secretary

23 shall deposit amounts received in repayment of

24 a loan in the Fund.

25 (c) INVESTMENT OF AMOUNTS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treas2 ury shall invest such portion of the Fund as is not,

3 in the judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury,

4 required to meet current withdrawals. Investments

5 may be made only in interest-bearing obligations of

6 the United States.

7 (2) ACQUISITION OF OBLIGATIONS.—For the

8 purpose of investments under paragraph (1), obliga9 tions may be acquired—

10 (A) on original issue at the issue price; or

11 (B) by purchase of outstanding obligations

12 at the market price.

13 (3) SALE OF OBLIGATIONS.—Any obligation ac14 quired by the Fund may be sold by the Secretary of

15 the Treasury at the market price.

16 (4) CREDITS TO FUND.—The interest on, and

17 the proceeds from the sale or redemption of, any ob18 ligations held in the Fund shall be credited to and

19 form a part of the Fund.

20 (d) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts in the Fund shall be

21 available to the Secretary, without further appropriation,

22 to make loans under subsection (b).

23 (e) REPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date

24 on which a utility or nonprofit organization receives a loan

25 under this section, and annually thereafter until such date
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1 as the loan is repaid in full, the loan recipient shall submit

2 to the Secretary of Energy a report that describes—

3 (1) any electricity savings or peak demand re4 ductions resulting from the implementation of activi5 ties carried out using loan funds; and

6 (2) an estimate of the annual cost-effectiveness

7 of all programs carried out by the loan recipient in

8 the year for which the report is submitted.

9 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

10 are authorized to be appropriated to the Fund such sums

11 as are necessary to carry out this section.

12 (g) CESSATION OF EFFECTIVENESS.—This section

13 ceases to be in effect on the date that is 10 years after

14 the date of enactment of this Act.

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