Bills to modernize nation’s energy infrastructure clears House Energy and Commerce Committee

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved eight bills to update the nation’s energy infrastructure, strengthen energy security and modernize environmental laws that lawmakers said would promote growth while having a major positive impact on consumers.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the chairman of the committee, said measures championed by U.S. Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) would enhance the Brownfields Program used to remediate and redevelop contaminated sites and also help realize the potential of hydroelectric power.

“All that we do here, we do for our constituents back home that sent us to Washington to get things done,” Walden said. “While these bills may not grab the headlines they deserve, let’s be real, we did some big things here (on Wednesday) that will have tremendous impact on consumers, the environment, and the economy in the years ahead.”

Lance helped secure passage of the Brownfields Enhancement Economic Redevelopment and Reauthorization Act, H.R. 3017. The measure would reauthorize the Brownfields Program, which supports the redevelopment of 419 sites in New Jersey alone.

The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the United States that could potentially be redeveloped. Many of the sites are former industrial or commercial properties that have closed or been abandoned, such as former gas stations.

“This is a tremendous win for environmental protection, economic development and for communities that have struggled with contaminated sites,” Lance said. “The Brownfields Program has worked — transforming over 59,000 sites nationwide into parks, commerce, housing or other public uses. Federal authorities have the expertise to come in, clean up these sites and relieve neighborhoods of these hazards. Our bill directs this work to reduce pollution and prepare these lands for conservation or economic development.”

The Brownfields Program, Lance added, has prompted $22 billion in private investments as a return on “minimal, though important, federal investment.”

The committee also approved the Hydropower Policy Modernization Act of 2017, introduced by McMorris Rodgers. The measure would streamline and coordinate federal procedures for licensing hydropower projects by designating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the lead agency.

“By designating FERC as the lead when coordinating with agencies, states and tribes, there will be added transparency and collaboration,” McMorris Rodgers said. “This added certainty in the relicensing process will diminish the burden on the resource agencies and help avoid unnecessary delays. This language also incentivizes capital intensive projects, like updating turbines or improving fish ladders. Right now, these upgrades are only included in the lifespan of a dam’s license during the relicensing window.”

While a natural gas facility takes on average 18 months to relicense, it can take more than 10 years to license a new hydropower project or to relicense an existing one, she noted.

Hydropower production in America could be doubled without building one new dam, McMorris Rodgers said, by updating the technology and existing infrastructure and by streamlining the relicensing process. That move would also create an estimated 700,000 jobs.

“In addition, the legislation allows the timely and efficient completion of license proceedings by minimizing duplication of studies and establishing a program to compile a comprehensive collection of studies and data on a regional or basin-wide scale,” McMorris Rodgers said.

The committee also approved H.R. 2786 to amend qualifying criteria for conduit hydropower facilities under the Federal Power Act; the Promoting Cross-Border Energy Infrastructure Act, H.R. 2883; the Promoting Interagency Coordination for Review of Natural Gas Pipelines Act, H.R. 2910; the Ozone Standards Implementation Act of 2017, H.R. 806; the Enhancing State Energy Security Planning and Emergency Preparedness Act, H.R. 3050; and the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, H.R. 3053.