II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1183
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Ms. C
ANTWELL(for herself, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mr. KING, Ms. COLLINS, Mr.
P
ETERS, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mrs. MURRAY, and Mrs. GILLI-
BRAND) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Finance
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
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Maintaining and En-2
hancing Hydroelectricity and River Restoration Act of 3
2025’’. 4
SEC. 2. CREDIT FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HY-5
DROELECTRIC FACILITIES. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subpart E of part IV of sub-7
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 8
1986 is amended by inserting after section 48E the fol-9
lowing new section: 10
‘‘SEC. 48F. CREDIT FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HY-11
DROELECTRIC FACILITIES. 12
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For purposes of section 46, the 13
credit for maintaining and enhancing hydroelectric facili-14
ties for any taxable year is an amount equal to 30 percent 15
of the basis of any hydropower improvement property 16
placed in service during such taxable year. 17
‘‘(b) C
ERTAINPROGRESSEXPENDITURE RULES 18
M
ADEAPPLICABLE.—Rules similar to the rules of sub-19
sections (c)(4) and (d) of section 46 (as in effect on the 20
day before the date of the enactment of the Revenue Rec-21
onciliation Act of 1990) shall apply for purposes of sub-22
section (a). 23
‘‘(c) H
YDROPOWER IMPROVEMENT PROPERTY.—In 24
this section, the term ‘hydropower improvement property’ 25
means property— 26
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‘‘(1) which— 1
‘‘(A) adds or improves fish passage at a 2
qualified dam, 3
‘‘(B) maintains or improves the quality of 4
the water retained or released by a qualified 5
dam, 6
‘‘(C) promotes downstream sediment trans-7
port processes and habitat maintenance with re-8
spect to a qualified dam, 9
‘‘(D) upgrades, repairs, or reconstructs a 10
qualified dam to meet Federal dam safety and 11
security standards, 12
‘‘(E) improves the public uses of, and ac-13
cess to, public waterways impacted by a quali-14
fied dam in a manner consistent with a license 15
issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Com-16
mission or a settlement agreement related to 17
such a license, 18
‘‘(F) removes an obsolete river obstruction, 19
or 20
‘‘(G) places into service an approved re-21
mote dam, and 22
‘‘(2) for which, prior to January 1, 2035, the 23
taxpayer receives written approval with respect to 24
any property described in paragraph (1) from the 25
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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or State or 1
local officials, as appropriate. 2
‘‘(d) O
THERDEFINITIONS.—In this section— 3
‘‘(1) A
PPROVED REMOTE DAM .—The term ‘ap-4
proved remote dam’ means— 5
‘‘(A) a hydroelectric dam which— 6
‘‘(i) exclusively services communities 7
not interconnected to the Electric Reli-8
ability Council of Texas, the Eastern Inter-9
connection, or the Western Interconnec-10
tion, 11
‘‘(ii) was licensed by the Federal En-12
ergy Regulatory Commission before De-13
cember 31, 2020, 14
‘‘(iii) does not contribute to atmos-15
phere pollution, and 16
‘‘(iv) has a maximum net output of 17
not greater than 20 megawatts, and 18
‘‘(B) any interconnection property associ-19
ated with a dam described in subparagraph (A). 20
‘‘(2) F
ISH PASSAGE.—The term ‘fish passage’ 21
means, with respect to any qualified dam, any new 22
or upgraded turbine, fishway, or other fish passage 23
technology which improves fish migration and sur-24
vival rates. 25
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‘‘(3) INTERCONNECTION PROPERTY .—The term 1
‘interconnection property’ means, with respect to 2
any dam described in paragraph (1)(A), any tangible 3
property— 4
‘‘(A) to enable the delivery of electricity 5
from such dam to any customer, and 6
‘‘(B) which satisfies the requirements 7
under clauses (ii) and (iii) of section 8
48(a)(8)(B). 9
‘‘(4) O
BSOLETE RIVER OBSTRUCTION .—The 10
term ‘obsolete river obstruction’ means a qualified 11
nonpowered dam (as defined in section 34(e)(3) of 12
the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 823e(e)(3))) no 13
longer serving its intended purpose. 14
‘‘(5) Q
UALIFIED DAM.—The term ‘qualified 15
dam’ means a hydroelectric dam that is licensed by 16
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or le-17
gally operating without such a license before the 18
date of enactment of this section.’’. 19
(b) E
LECTIVEPAYMENT ANDTRANSFER OFCRED-20
IT.— 21
(1) E
LECTIVE PAYMENT.—Section 6417 of the 22
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 23
(A) in subsection (b), by adding at the end 24
the following: 25
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‘‘(13) The credit for maintaining and enhancing 1
hydroelectric facilities under section 48F.’’, and 2
(B) in subsection (d)(1)— 3
(i) in subparagraph (E), by striking 4
‘‘(C), or (D)’’ each place it appears and in-5
serting ‘‘(C), (D), or (E)’’, 6
(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 7
(E) (as amended by clause (i)) as subpara-8
graph (F), and 9
(iii) by inserting after subparagraph 10
(D) the following: 11
‘‘(E) E
LECTION WITH RESPECT TO CREDIT 12
FOR MAINTAINING AND ENHANCING HYDRO -13
ELECTRIC FACILITIES.—If a taxpayer other 14
than an entity described in subparagraph (A) 15
makes an election under this subparagraph with 16
respect to any taxable year in which such tax-17
payer has, after December 31, 2025, placed in 18
service hydropower improvement property (as 19
defined in section 48F(c)), such taxpayer shall 20
be treated as an applicable entity for purposes 21
of this section for such taxable year, but only 22
with respect to the credit described in sub-23
section (b)(13).’’. 24
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(2) TRANSFER.—Section 6418(f)(1)(A) of the 1
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by add-2
ing at the end the following: 3
‘‘(xii) The credit for maintaining and 4
enhancing hydroelectric facilities under 5
section 48F.’’. 6
(c) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 7
(1) Section 46 of the Internal Revenue Code of 8
1986 is amended— 9
(A) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 10
the end, 11
(B) in paragraph (7), by striking the pe-12
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and 13
(C) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(8) the credit for maintaining and enhancing 15
hydroelectric facilities.’’. 16
(2) Section 49(a)(1)(C) of such Code is amend-17
ed— 18
(A) in clause (vii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 19
end, 20
(B) in clause (viii), by striking the period 21
at the end and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and 22
(C) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(ix) the basis of any hydropower im-24
provement property under section 48F.’’. 25
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(3) Section 50 of such Code is amended— 1
(A) in subsection (a)(2)(E), as amended by 2
section 13702(b) of Public Law 117–169, by 3
striking ‘‘or 48E(e)’’ and inserting ‘‘48E(e), or 4
48F(b)’’, and 5
(B) in subsection (d)(2)— 6
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-7
graph (A), by inserting ‘‘or any hydro-8
power improvement property (as defined in 9
section 48F(c))’’ after ‘‘any energy storage 10
technology (as defined in section 11
48(c)(6))’’, and 12
(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 13
‘‘energy storage technology’’ each place it 14
appears and inserting ‘‘energy storage 15
technology or hydropower improvement 16
property’’. 17
(4) The table of sections for subpart E of part 18
IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of such Code is 19
amended by inserting after the item relating to sec-20
tion 48E the following new item: 21
‘‘Sec. 48F. Credit for maintaining and enhancing hydroelectric facilities.’’.
(d) EFFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 22
this section shall apply to property placed in service after 23
December 31, 2025. 24
Æ
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