II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 23
To establish a more uniform, transparent, and modern process to authorize
the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of international
border-crossing facilities for the import and export of oil and natural
gas and the transmission of electricity.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23 (legislative day, JANUARY3), 2023
Mr. M
ULLINintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To establish a more uniform, transparent, and modern proc-
ess to authorize the construction, connection, operation,
and maintenance of international border-crossing facili-
ties for the import and export of oil and natural gas
and the transmission of electricity.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Cross-bor-4
der Energy Infrastructure Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. STRENGTHENING NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY SECU-1
RITY. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) B
ORDER-CROSSING FACILITY.—The term 4
‘‘border-crossing facility’’ means the portion of an oil 5
or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-6
ity that is located at an international boundary of 7
the United States. 8
(2) E
LECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION ; RE-9
GIONAL ENTITY.—The terms ‘‘Electric Reliability 10
Organization’’ and ‘‘regional entity’’ have the mean-11
ings given those terms in section 215(a) of the Fed-12
eral Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o(a)). 13
(3) I
NDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR ; RE-14
GIONAL TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION .—The terms 15
‘‘Independent System Operator’’ and ‘‘Regional 16
Transmission Organization’’ have the meanings 17
given those terms in section 3 of the Federal Power 18
Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 19
(4) M
ODIFICATION.—The term ‘‘modification’’ 20
includes a reversal of flow direction, change in own-21
ership, change in flow volume, addition or removal 22
of an interconnection, or an adjustment to maintain 23
flow (such as a reduction or increase in the number 24
of pump or compressor stations). 25
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(5) NATURAL GAS.—The term ‘‘natural gas’’ 1
has the meaning given that term in section 2 of the 2
Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717a). 3
(6) O
IL.—The term ‘‘oil’’ means petroleum or 4
a petroleum product. 5
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF CERTAINENERGYINFRA-6
STRUCTUREPROJECTS AT AN INTERNATIONAL BOUND-7
ARY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-9
graph (3) and subsection (e), no person may con-10
struct, connect, operate, or maintain a border-cross-11
ing facility for the import or export of oil or natural 12
gas, or the transmission of electricity, across an 13
international border of the United States without 14
obtaining a certificate of crossing for the border- 15
crossing facility under this subsection. 16
(2) C
ERTIFICATE OF CROSSING.— 17
(A) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 120 18
days after the date on which final action is 19
taken by the relevant official or agency de-20
scribed in subparagraph (B) under the National 21
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 22
4321 et seq.) with respect to a border-crossing 23
facility for which a person requests a certificate 24
of crossing under this subsection, the relevant 25
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official or agency, in consultation with appro-1
priate Federal agencies, shall issue a certificate 2
of crossing for the border-crossing facility un-3
less the relevant official or agency finds that 4
the construction, connection, operation, or 5
maintenance of the border-crossing facility is 6
not in the public interest of the United States. 7
(B) R
ELEVANT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY DE -8
SCRIBED.—The relevant official or agency re-9
ferred to in subparagraph (A) is— 10
(i) the Federal Energy Regulatory 11
Commission with respect to border-cross-12
ing facilities consisting of oil or natural 13
gas pipelines; and 14
(ii) the Secretary of Energy, with re-15
spect to border-crossing facilities consisting 16
of electric transmission facilities. 17
(C) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR 18
ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION FACILITIES .—In the 19
case of a request for a certificate of crossing for 20
a border-crossing facility consisting of an elec-21
tric transmission facility, the Secretary of En-22
ergy shall require, as a condition of issuing the 23
certificate of crossing under subparagraph (A), 24
that the border-crossing facility be constructed, 25
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connected, operated, or maintained consistent 1
with all applicable policies and standards of— 2
(i) the Electric Reliability Organiza-3
tion and the applicable regional entity; and 4
(ii) any Regional Transmission Orga-5
nization or Independent System Operator 6
with operational or functional control over 7
the border-crossing facility. 8
(3) E
XCLUSIONS.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—This subsection shall 10
not apply to any construction, connection, oper-11
ation, or maintenance of a border-crossing facil-12
ity for the import or export of oil or natural 13
gas, or the transmission of electricity if— 14
(i) the border-crossing facility is oper-15
ating for such import, export, or trans-16
mission as of the date of enactment of this 17
Act; 18
(ii) a permit described in subsection 19
(e) for the construction, connection, oper-20
ation, or maintenance has been issued; or 21
(iii) subject to subparagraph (B), an 22
application for a permit described in sub-23
section (e) for the construction, connection, 24
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operation, or maintenance is pending on 1
the date of enactment of this Act. 2
(B) P
ENDING APPLICATIONS .—With re-3
spect to an application described in clause (iii) 4
of subparagraph (A), the exclusion described in 5
that subparagraph shall apply until the earlier 6
of— 7
(i) the date on which the application 8
is denied; or 9
(ii) that date that is 2 years after the 10
date of enactment of this Act, if the permit 11
described in that clause has not been 12
issued by that date. 13
(4) E
FFECT OF OTHER LAWS .— 14
(A) A
PPLICATION TO PROJECTS .—Nothing 15
in this subsection or subsection (f) shall affect 16
the application of any other Federal statute to 17
a project for which a certificate of crossing for 18
a border-crossing facility is requested under 19
this subsection. 20
(B) N
ATURAL GAS ACT.—Nothing in this 21
subsection or subsection (f) shall affect the re-22
quirement to obtain approval or authorization 23
under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act 24
(15 U.S.C. 717b, 717f) for the siting, construc-25
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tion, or operation of any facility to import or 1
export natural gas. 2
(C) O
IL PIPELINES.—Nothing in this sub-3
section or subsection (f) shall affect the author-4
ity of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-5
sion with respect to oil pipelines under section 6
60502 of title 49, United States Code. 7
(c) I
MPORTATION OR EXPORTATION OF NATURAL 8
G
AS TOCANADA ANDMEXICO.—Section 3(c) of the Nat-9
ural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(c)) is amended by adding 10
at the end the following: ‘‘In the case of an application 11
for the importation of natural gas from, or the exportation 12
of natural gas to, Canada or Mexico, the Commission shall 13
grant the application not later than 30 days after the date 14
on which the Commission receives the complete applica-15
tion.’’. 16
(d) T
RANSMISSION OFELECTRICENERGY TOCAN-17
ADA ANDMEXICO.— 18
(1) R
EPEAL OF REQUIREMENT TO SECURE 19
ORDER.—Section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act 20
(16 U.S.C. 824a(e)) is repealed. 21
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 22
(A) S
TATE REGULATIONS.—Section 202(f) 23
of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824a(f)) 24
is amended by striking ‘‘insofar as such State 25
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regulation does not conflict with the exercise of 1
the Commission’s powers under or relating to 2
subsection (e)’’. 3
(B) S
EASONAL DIVERSITY ELECTRICITY 4
EXCHANGE.—Section 602(b) of the Public Util-5
ity Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 6
824a–4(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘the Com-7
mission has conducted hearings and made the 8
findings required under section 202(e) of the 9
Federal Power Act’’ in the first sentence and 10
all that follows through the period at the end 11
of the second sentence and inserting ‘‘the Sec-12
retary has conducted hearings and finds that 13
the proposed transmission facilities would not 14
impair the sufficiency of electric supply within 15
the United States or would not impede or tend 16
to impede the coordination in the public interest 17
of facilities subject to the jurisdiction of the 18
Secretary.’’. 19
(e) N
OPRESIDENTIALPERMITREQUIRED.—No 20
Presidential permit (or similar permit) required under Ex-21
ecutive Order No. 10485 (42 U.S.C. 717b note; relating 22
to providing for the performance of certain functions here-23
tofore performed by the President with respect to electric 24
power and natural gas facilities located on the borders of 25
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the United States), any other Executive order, or section 1
301 of title 3, United States Code, shall be necessary for 2
the construction, connection, operation, or maintenance of 3
an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-4
ity, or any border-crossing facility thereof. 5
(f) M
ODIFICATIONS TO EXISTINGPROJECTS.—No 6
certificate of crossing under subsection (b), or permit de-7
scribed in subsection (e), shall be required for a modifica-8
tion to— 9
(1) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 10
transmission facility that is operating for the import 11
or export of oil or natural gas or the transmission 12
of electricity as of the date of enactment of this Act; 13
(2) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 14
transmission facility for which a permit described in 15
subsection (e) has been issued; or 16
(3) a border-crossing facility for which a certifi-17
cate of crossing has previously been issued under 18
subsection (b). 19
(g) E
FFECTIVEDATE; RULEMAKINGDEADLINES.— 20
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE .—Subsections (b) 21
through (f), and the amendments made by those 22
subsections, shall take effect on the date that is 1 23
year after the date of enactment of this Act. 24
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(2) RULEMAKING DEADLINES .—Each relevant 1
official or agency described in subsection (b)(2)(B) 2
shall— 3
(A) not later than 180 days after the date 4
of enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 5
Register a notice of proposed rulemaking to 6
carry out the applicable requirements of sub-7
section (b); and 8
(B) not later than 1 year after the date of 9
enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 10
Register a final rule to carry out the applicable 11
requirements of subsection (b). 12
Æ
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