Title: PARs Act
Policy area: Energy

Summary:
Parity Across Reviews Act or the PARs Act
This bill amends the Federal Power Act with respect to the prohibition regarding mergers or consolidations by a public utility. Any merger or consolidation of a public utility whose value exceeds $10 million must first be authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
In addition, FERC is required to promulgate a rule within 180 days that mandates any public utility seeking to merge or consolidate to notify FERC, within 30 days of transaction consummation, if the value of such merger or consolidation exceeds $1 million but is less than $10 million.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1860 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1860

             To amend section 203 of the Federal Power Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 26, 2017

  Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. Heinrich) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
             To amend section 203 of the Federal Power Act.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Parity Across Reviews Act'' or the 
``PARs Act''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF FACILITY MERGER AUTHORIZATION.

    Section 203(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 
824b(a)(1)(B)) is amended by striking ``such facilities or any part 
thereof'' and inserting ``such facilities, or any part thereof, of a 
value in excess of $10,000,000''.

SEC. 3. NOTIFICATION FOR CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS.

    Section 203(a) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824b(a)) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(7)(A) Not later than 180 days after the date of 
        enactment of this paragraph, the Commission shall promulgate a 
        rule requiring any public utility that is seeking to merge or 
        consolidate, directly or indirectly, its facilities subject to 
        the jurisdiction of the Commission, or any part thereof, with 
        those of any other person, to notify the Commission of such 
        transaction not later than 30 days after the date on which the 
        transaction is consummated if--
                    ``(i) such facilities, or any part thereof, are of 
                a value in excess of $1,000,000; and
                    ``(ii) such public utility is not required to 
                secure an order of the Commission under paragraph 
                (1)(B).
            ``(B) In establishing any notification requirement under 
        subparagraph (A), the Commission shall, to the maximum extent 
        practicable, minimize the paperwork burden resulting from the 
        collection of information.''.

SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendment made by section 2 shall take effect 180 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act.
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