Federal Power Act Amendments Act of 2003

Bill: 108-s-716
Sponsor: Sen. Landrieu, Mary L. [D-LA]
Introduced: 2003-03-26 in the Senate
Policy area: Energy
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Capital investments
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Electric power distribution
Electric power production
Electric power transmission
Electric utilities
Electric utility rates
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Federal-state relations
Finance and Financial Sector
Government Operations and Politics
Independent regulatory commissions
Law
Power marketing administrations
Public utility regulation
Regional planning
State laws
Tennessee Valley development

Summary:
action_date: 2003-03-26
text: 
Federal Power Act Amendments Act of 2003 - Amends the Federal Power Act to provide that Federal regulation of electric energy transmission and sales shall not extend to those matters which are subject to regulation by the States, including the retail sale of electric energy and any component service.
 
Denies the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdiction over: (1) bundled retail sales of electric energy (sales of electric energy to retail customers where generation, transmission, distribution, and other services necessary to supply electric energy to such customers are sold as a single delivered service by a single seller); and (2) the transmission component of sales of electric energy to retail customers.
 
Requires FERC, upon request of a Regional Transmission Organization or any FERC-authorized transmission entity, to authorize the recovery of costs on a participant-funding basis of transmission facilities that increase the transfer capability of the transmission system.
 
Directs FERC to establish technical standards and procedures for the interconnection of facilities used for the transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce with facilities used for the generation of electric energy.
 
Instructs FERC to ensure, in setting rates for transmission services, that all jurisdictional uses of transmission facilities bear an allocation of the embedded costs of the facilities, as well as the costs of other services ancillary to the transmission of electric energy.
 
Directs FERC to promulgate pricing policies and standards to promote expansion and improvement of interstate transmission networks through incentive-based, performance-based, participant-funded and cost of service-based rate treatments to ensure reliability of the electric system, to support interstate wholesale markets for electric power, and to expand transmission transfer capacity needed to sustain wholesale competition.
 
Directs FERC to convene regional discussions with State and other retail regulatory commissions to address whether wholesale electric markets in each region (especially regions without a regional transmission organization) are working effectively to provide reliable service to electric consumers in the region at the lowest reasonable cost.
 
Authorizes FERC to require an unregulated transmitting utility to provide open access transmission services.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2003-03-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
action_date: 2003-03-26
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S4442-4443)
action_date: 2003-03-26
text: Introduced in Senate