II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 989
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
MARCH27, 2023
Mr. H
OEVEN(for himself, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. SULLIVAN, and Mr. BUDD) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee 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 ‘‘North American En-4
ergy Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. APPROVAL FOR BORDER-CROSSING FACILITIES. 1
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OF CERTAINENERGYINFRA-2
STRUCTUREPROJECTS AT AN INTERNATIONAL BOUND-3
ARY OF THEUNITEDSTATES.— 4
(1) A
UTHORIZATION.—Except as provided in 5
paragraph (3) and subsection (e), no person may 6
construct, connect, or operate, a border-crossing fa-7
cility for the import or export of oil or natural gas, 8
or the transmission of electricity, across an inter-9
national border of the United States without obtain-10
ing a certificate of crossing for the border-crossing 11
facility under this subsection. 12
(2) C
ERTIFICATE OF CROSSING.— 13
(A) R
EQUIREMENT.—Not later than 90 14
days after final action is taken, by the relevant 15
official or agency identified under subparagraph 16
(B), under the National Environmental Policy 17
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) with re-18
spect to a border-crossing facility for which a 19
person requests a certificate of crossing under 20
this subsection, the relevant official or agency, 21
in consultation with appropriate Federal agen-22
cies, shall issue a certificate of crossing for the 23
border-crossing facility unless the relevant offi-24
cial or agency finds that the construction, con-25
nection, or operation, of the border-crossing fa-26
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cility is not in the public interest of the United 1
States. 2
(B) R
ELEVANT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY .— 3
The relevant official or agency referred to in 4
subparagraph (A) is— 5
(i) the Federal Energy Regulatory 6
Commission with respect to border-cross-7
ing facilities consisting of oil or natural 8
gas pipelines; and 9
(ii) the Secretary of Energy with re-10
spect to border-crossing facilities consisting 11
of electric transmission facilities. 12
(C) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR 13
ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION FACILITIES .—In the 14
case of a request for a certificate of crossing for 15
a border-crossing facility consisting of an elec-16
tric transmission facility, the Secretary of En-17
ergy shall require, as a condition of issuing the 18
certificate of crossing under subparagraph (A), 19
that the border-crossing facility be constructed, 20
connected, operated, or maintained consistent 21
with all applicable policies and standards of— 22
(i) the Electric Reliability Organiza-23
tion and the applicable regional entity; and 24
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(ii) any Regional Transmission Orga-1
nization or Independent System Operator 2
with operational or functional control over 3
the border-crossing facility. 4
(3) E
XCLUSIONS.—This subsection shall not 5
apply to any construction, connection, operation, or 6
maintenance of a border-crossing facility for the im-7
port or export of oil or natural gas, or the trans-8
mission of electricity— 9
(A) if the border-crossing facility is oper-10
ating for such import, export, or transmission 11
as of the date of enactment of this Act; 12
(B) if a permit described in subsection (d) 13
for the construction, connection, operation, or 14
maintenance has been issued; or 15
(C) if an application for a permit described 16
in subsection (d) for the construction, connec-17
tion, operation, or maintenance is pending on 18
the date of enactment of this Act, until the ear-19
lier of— 20
(i) the date on which such application 21
is denied; or 22
(ii) 2 years after the date of enact-23
ment of this Act, if such a permit has not 24
been issued by such date. 25
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(4) EFFECT OF OTHER LAWS .— 1
(A) A
PPLICATION TO PROJECTS .—Nothing 2
in this subsection or subsection (e) shall affect 3
the application of any other Federal statute to 4
a project for which a certificate of crossing for 5
a border-crossing facility is requested under 6
this subsection. 7
(B) N
ATURAL GAS ACT.—Nothing in this 8
subsection or subsection (e) shall affect the re-9
quirement to obtain approval or authorization 10
under sections 3 and 7 of the Natural Gas Act 11
(15 U.S.C. 717b, 717f) for the siting, construc-12
tion, or operation of any facility to import or 13
export natural gas. 14
(C) O
IL PIPELINES.—Nothing in this sub-15
section or subsection (e) shall affect the author-16
ity of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-17
sion with respect to oil pipelines under section 18
60502 of title 49, United States Code. 19
(D) S
COPE OF NEPA REVIEW .—Nothing in 20
this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, 21
shall affect the scope of any review required to 22
be conducted under section 102 of the National 23
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 24
4332) with respect to a project for which a cer-25
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tificate of crossing for a border-crossing facility 1
is requested under this subsection. 2
(b) I
MPORTATION OR EXPORTATION OF NATURAL 3
G
AS TOCANADA ANDMEXICO.—Section 3(c) of the Nat-4
ural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b(c)) is amended by adding 5
at the end the following: ‘‘In the case of an application 6
for the importation of natural gas from, or the exportation 7
of natural gas to, Canada or Mexico, the Commission shall 8
grant the application not later than 30 days after the date 9
on which the Commission receives the complete applica-10
tion.’’. 11
(c) T
RANSMISSION OFELECTRICENERGY TOCAN-12
ADA ANDMEXICO.— 13
(1) R
EPEAL OF REQUIREMENT TO SECURE 14
ORDER.—Section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act 15
(16 U.S.C. 824a(e)) is repealed. 16
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 17
(A) S
TATE REGULATIONS.—Section 202(f) 18
of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824a(f)) 19
is amended by striking ‘‘insofar as such State 20
regulation does not conflict with the exercise of 21
the Commission’s powers under or relating to 22
subsection (e)’’. 23
(B) S
EASONAL DIVERSITY ELECTRICITY 24
EXCHANGE.—Section 602(b) of the Public Util-25
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ity Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 1
824a–4(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘the Com-2
mission has conducted hearings and made the 3
findings required under section 202(e) of the 4
Federal Power Act’’ and all that follows 5
through the period at the end and inserting 6
‘‘the Secretary has conducted hearings and 7
finds that the proposed transmission facilities 8
would not impair the sufficiency of electric sup-9
ply within the United States or would not im-10
pede or tend to impede the coordination in the 11
public interest of facilities subject to the juris-12
diction of the Secretary.’’. 13
(d) N
OPRESIDENTIALPERMITREQUIRED.—No 14
Presidential permit (or similar permit) shall be required 15
pursuant to any provision of law or Executive order for 16
the construction, connection, operation, or maintenance of 17
an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric transmission facil-18
ity, or any border-crossing facility thereof. 19
(e) M
ODIFICATIONS TO AND MAINTENANCE OF EX-20
ISTINGPROJECTS.—No certificate of crossing under sub-21
section (a), or permit described in subsection (d), shall be 22
required for a modification to or maintenance of— 23
(1) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 24
transmission facility that is operating for the import 25
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or export of oil or natural gas or the transmission 1
of electricity as of the date of enactment of this Act; 2
(2) an oil or natural gas pipeline or electric 3
transmission facility for which a permit described in 4
subsection (d) has been issued; or 5
(3) a border-crossing facility for which a certifi-6
cate of crossing has previously been issued under 7
subsection (a). 8
(f) E
FFECTIVEDATES; RULEMAKINGDEADLINES.— 9
(1) E
FFECTIVE DATE .—Subsections (a) 10
through (e) and the amendments made by such sub-11
sections shall take effect on the date that is 1 year 12
after the date of enactment of this Act. 13
(2) R
ULEMAKING DEADLINES .—Each relevant 14
official or agency described in subsection (a)(2)(B) 15
shall— 16
(A) not later than 180 days after the date 17
of enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 18
Register notice of a proposed rulemaking to 19
carry out the applicable requirements of sub-20
section (a); and 21
(B) not later than 1 year after the date of 22
enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal 23
Register a final rule to carry out the applicable 24
requirements of subsection (a). 25
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(g) JUDICIALREVIEW.—Any entity aggrieved by a 1
final agency action taken under this section may obtain 2
a review of such action by filing a petition for review in 3
the United States Court of Appeals for any circuit wherein 4
an applicant for authorization under this section is located 5
or has its principal place of business, or in the United 6
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The 7
petition must be filed not later than 60 days after such 8
action is taken. 9
(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 10
(1) A
PPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES .—The 11
term ‘‘appropriate Federal agencies’’ in subsection 12
(a)(2)(A) means the Secretary of Defense, the Attor-13
ney General, the Secretary of the Interior, the Sec-14
retary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transpor-15
tation, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of 16
Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Envi-17
ronmental Protection Agency, and, for applications 18
concerning the border with Mexico, the United 19
States Commissioner of the International Boundary 20
and Water Commission. 21
(2) B
ORDER-CROSSING FACILITY.—The term 22
‘‘border-crossing facility’’ means— 23
(A) the portion of an oil pipeline between 24
an international boundary and the first main-25
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line valve on the United States side of an inter-1
national boundary; and 2
(B) the portion of a natural gas pipeline or 3
electric transmission facility that is located at 4
an international boundary of the United States. 5
(3) E
LECTRIC RELIABILITY ORGANIZATION ; RE-6
GIONAL ENTITY.—The terms ‘‘Electric Reliability 7
Organization’’ and ‘‘regional entity’’ have the mean-8
ings given those terms in section 215 of the Federal 9
Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824o). 10
(4) I
NDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR ; RE-11
GIONAL TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION .—The terms 12
‘‘Independent System Operator’’ and ‘‘Regional 13
Transmission Organization’’ have the meanings 14
given those terms in section 3 of the Federal Power 15
Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 16
(5) M
ODIFICATION.—The term ‘‘modification’’ 17
includes a reversal of flow direction, change in own-18
ership, change in flow volume, change in product de-19
livered, addition or removal of an interconnection, or 20
an adjustment to regulate flow (such as a reduction 21
or increase in the number of pump or compressor 22
stations or valves). 23
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(6) 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
(7) O
IL.—The term ‘‘oil’’ means petroleum or 4
a petroleum product. 5
Æ
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