I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2160
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to support upgrades at existing
hydroelectric dams in order to increase clean energy production, improve
the resiliency and reliability of the United States electric grid, enhance
the health of the Nation’s rivers and associated wildlife habitats, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH14, 2025
Mr. S
MITHof Nebraska (for himself, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms.
S
CHRIER, Ms. TENNEY, and Ms. GOODLANDER) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to support
upgrades at existing hydroelectric dams in order to in-
crease clean energy production, improve the resiliency
and reliability of the United States electric grid, enhance
the health of the Nation’s rivers and associated wildlife
habitats, 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 ‘‘Maintaining and En-4
hancing Hydroelectricity and River Restoration Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. CREDIT FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HY-1
DROELECTRIC FACILITIES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subpart E of part IV of sub-3
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 4
1986 is amended by inserting after section 48E the fol-5
lowing new section: 6
‘‘SEC. 48F. CREDIT FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HY-7
DROELECTRIC FACILITIES. 8
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For purposes of section 46, the 9
credit for maintaining and enhancing hydroelectric facili-10
ties for any taxable year is an amount equal to 30 percent 11
of the basis of any hydropower improvement property 12
placed in service during such taxable year. 13
‘‘(b) C
ERTAINPROGRESSEXPENDITURE RULES 14
M
ADEAPPLICABLE.—Rules similar to the rules of sub-15
sections (c)(4) and (d) of section 46 (as in effect on the 16
day before the date of the enactment of the Revenue Rec-17
onciliation Act of 1990) shall apply for purposes of sub-18
section (a). 19
‘‘(c) H
YDROPOWER IMPROVEMENT PROPERTY.—In 20
this section, the term ‘hydropower improvement property’ 21
means property— 22
‘‘(1) which— 23
‘‘(A) adds or improves fish passage at a 24
qualified dam, 25
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‘‘(B) maintains or improves the quality of 1
the water retained or released by a qualified 2
dam, 3
‘‘(C) promotes downstream sediment trans-4
port processes and habitat maintenance with re-5
spect to a qualified dam, 6
‘‘(D) upgrades, repairs, or reconstructs a 7
qualified dam to meet Federal dam safety and 8
security standards, 9
‘‘(E) improves the public uses of, and ac-10
cess to, public waterways impacted by a quali-11
fied dam in a manner consistent with a license 12
issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Com-13
mission or a settlement agreement related to 14
such a license, 15
‘‘(F) removes an obsolete river obstruction, 16
or 17
‘‘(G) places into service an approved re-18
mote dam, and 19
‘‘(2) for which, prior to January 1, 2032, the 20
taxpayer receives written approval with respect to 21
any property described in paragraph (1) from the 22
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or State or 23
local officials, as appropriate. 24
‘‘(d) O
THERDEFINITIONS.—In this section— 25
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‘‘(1) APPROVED REMOTE DAM .—The term ‘ap-1
proved remote dam’ means— 2
‘‘(A) a hydroelectric dam which— 3
‘‘(i) exclusively services communities 4
not interconnected to the Electric Reli-5
ability Council of Texas, the Eastern Inter-6
connection, or the Western Interconnec-7
tion, 8
‘‘(ii) was licensed by the Federal En-9
ergy Regulatory Commission before De-10
cember 31, 2020, 11
‘‘(iii) does not contribute to atmos-12
phere pollution, and 13
‘‘(iv) has a maximum net output of 14
not greater than 20 megawatts, and 15
‘‘(B) any interconnection property associ-16
ated with a dam described in subparagraph (A). 17
‘‘(2) F
ISH PASSAGE.—The term ‘fish passage’ 18
means, with respect to any qualified dam, any new 19
or upgraded turbine, fishway, or other fish passage 20
technology which improves fish migration and sur-21
vival rates. 22
‘‘(3) I
NTERCONNECTION PROPERTY .—The term 23
‘interconnection property’ means, with respect to 24
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any dam described in paragraph (1)(A), any tangible 1
property— 2
‘‘(A) to enable the delivery of electricity 3
from such dam to any customer, and 4
‘‘(B) which satisfies the requirements 5
under clauses (ii) and (iii) of section 6
48(a)(8)(B). 7
‘‘(4) O
BSOLETE RIVER OBSTRUCTION .—The 8
term ‘obsolete river obstruction’ means a qualified 9
nonpowered dam (as defined in section 34(e)(3) of 10
the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 823e(e)(3))) no 11
longer serving its intended purpose. 12
‘‘(5) Q
UALIFIED DAM.—The term ‘qualified 13
dam’ means a hydroelectric dam that is licensed by 14
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or le-15
gally operating without such a license before the 16
date of enactment of this section.’’. 17
(b) E
LECTIVEPAYMENT ANDTRANSFER OFCRED-18
IT.— 19
(1) E
LECTIVE PAYMENT.—Section 6417 of the 20
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 21
(A) in subsection (b), by adding at the end 22
the following: 23
‘‘(13) The credit for maintaining and enhancing 24
hydroelectric facilities under section 48F.’’, and 25
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(B) in subsection (d)(1)— 1
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 2
‘‘(C), or (D)’’ each place it appears and in-3
serting ‘‘(C), (D), or (E)’’, 4
(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 5
(E) (as amended by clause (i)) as subpara-6
graph (F), and 7
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 8
(D) the following: 9
‘‘(E) E
LECTION WITH RESPECT TO CREDIT 10
FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HYDRO -11
ELECTRIC FACILITIES.—If a taxpayer other 12
than an entity described in subparagraph (A) 13
makes an election under this subparagraph with 14
respect to any taxable year in which such tax-15
payer has, after December 31, 2022, placed in 16
service hydropower improvement property (as 17
defined in section 48F(c)), such taxpayer shall 18
be treated as an applicable entity for purposes 19
of this section for such taxable year, but only 20
with respect to the credit described in sub-21
section (b)(13).’’. 22
(2) T
RANSFER.—Section 6418(f)(1)(A) of the 23
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by add-24
ing at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(xii) The credit for maintaining and 1
enhancing hydroelectric facilities under 2
section 48F.’’. 3
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 4
(1) Section 46 of the Internal Revenue Code of 5
1986 is amended— 6
(A) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 7
the end, 8
(B) in paragraph (7), by striking the pe-9
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and 10
(C) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(8) the credit for maintaining and enhancing 12
hydroelectric facilities.’’. 13
(2) Section 49(a)(1)(C) of such Code is amend-14
ed— 15
(A) in clause (vii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 16
end, 17
(B) in clause (viii), by striking the period 18
at the end and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and 19
(C) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(ix) the basis of any hydropower im-21
provement property under section 48F.’’. 22
(3) Section 50 of such Code is amended— 23
(A) in subsection (a)(2)(E), as amended by 24
section 13702(b) of Public Law 117–169, by 25
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striking ‘‘or 48E(e)’’ and inserting ‘‘48E(e), or 1
48F(b)’’, and 2
(B) in subsection (d)(2)— 3
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-4
graph (A), by inserting ‘‘or any hydro-5
power improvement property (as defined in 6
section 48F(c))’’ after ‘‘any energy storage 7
technology (as defined in section 8
48(c)(6))’’, and 9
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 10
‘‘energy storage technology’’ each place it 11
appears and inserting ‘‘energy storage 12
technology or hydropower improvement 13
property’’. 14
(4) The table of sections for subpart E of part 15
IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of such Code is 16
amended by inserting after the item relating to sec-17
tion 48E the following new item: 18
‘‘Sec. 48F. Credit for maintaining and enhancing hydroelectric facilities.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 19
this section shall apply to property placed in service after 20
December 31, 2022. 21
Æ
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