I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2074
To prohibit the breaching of federally operated dams in certain circumstances,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH11, 2025
Mr. N
EWHOUSE(for himself, Mr. BAUMGARTNER, Mr. FULCHER, and Mr.
B
ENTZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Com-
mittee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prohibit the breaching of federally operated dams in
certain circumstances, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Protecting Our Water 4
Energy Resources Act’’ or the ‘‘POWER Act’’. 5
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•HR 2074 IH
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON BREACHING OF FEDERALLY OP-1
ERATED DAMS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-3
sion of law, the Secretary of the Army may not breach 4
a federally operated dam— 5
(1) if the Secretary determines that such 6
breach— 7
(A) would result in an increase in carbon 8
emissions by more than 5 percent; 9
(B) would make the body of water im-10
pacted by the breach less navigable for commer-11
cial interests; or 12
(C) would result in increase of at least 5 13
percent of the price of any products, including 14
agricultural products, shipped via the body of 15
water impacted by the breach; or 16
(2) if the energy resource intended to replace 17
such dam as a result of such breach would occupy 18
an area of land that is larger in acreage than the 19
area occupied by such dam by at least 5 percent. 20
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—In making the determinations 21
required under subsection (a)(1), the Secretary shall— 22
(1) consult with the Secretary of Energy with 23
respect to the determination described in subpara-24
graph (A) of such subsection; 25
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•HR 2074 IH
(2) consult with the Secretary of Transpor-1
tation with respect to the determination described 2
subparagraph (B) of such subsection; 3
(3) consult with the Secretary of Agriculture 4
and the Secretary of Commerce with respect to the 5
determination described in subparagraph (C) of such 6
subsection; and 7
(4) consult with the relevant agencies in the 8
State in which the dam proposed to be breached is 9
located. 10
(c) S
TUDYREQUIRED.—If the Secretary considers 11
breaching a federally operated dam, the Secretary, in co-12
ordination with the Secretary of the Interior, shall conduct 13
a study analyzing the number of acres of land such dam 14
occupies. 15
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON RETIREMENT OF ENERGY GEN-16
ERATION SOURCES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall not retire an 18
energy generation source if the retirement of that energy 19
generation source would— 20
(1) raise customer electricity rates by more 21
than 5 percent; or 22
(2) decrease energy reliability, as determined by 23
the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Adminis-24
tration, in any portion of Washington, Oregon, 25
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Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and California by more 1
than 5 percent of the energy reliability as compared 2
to the 12 month period before the retirement. 3
(b) R
EPLACEMENT OF BASELOADGENERATION.— 4
Not later than 30 days after retiring an energy generation 5
source, the Secretary shall ensure that not less than 100 6
percent of the baseload generation of the retired energy 7
generation source has been replaced. 8
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
(1) B
ASELOAD GENERATION .—The term ‘‘base-10
load generation’’ means the the minimum amount of 11
electric power supplied to an electrical grid. 12
(2) E
NERGY GENERATION SOURCE .—The term 13
‘‘energy generation source’’ means a federally oper-14
ated dam that generates hydropower. 15
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 16
means— 17
(A) the Secretary of the Interior, in ref-18
erence to an energy generation source operated 19
by the Bureau of Reclamation; and 20
(B) the Secretary of the Army, in ref-21
erence to an energy generation source operated 22
by the Army Corps of Engineers. 23
Æ
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