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| Sen Schumer, Charles E. - 7/18/2000 |
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Consumer Empowerment and Electricity Deregulation Act of 2000 - Title I: Consumer Choice and Competition for Electric Suppliers - Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to set forth retail electric competition parameters for State-regulated local distribution systems and for nonregulated local distribution systems, including the authority to recover stranded costs.
(Sec. 101) Empowers the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)to enforce compliance with this Act.
(Sec. 102) Terminates the requirement that electric utilities enter into new contracts for the sale or purchase of electric energy or capacity.
Amends the Federal Power Act to: (1) declare that bundled and unbundled electric energy transmission service falls within the purview of the Act, including the sale of electric energy at wholesale in interstate commerce; and (2) grant FERC jurisdiction over facilities used to provide bundled and unbundled electric energy transmission services in interstate commerce, make sales of electric energy intended for resale, or establish and enforce bulk power system reliability standards implemented by a regional transmission organization.
Title II: Public Utility Holding Companies - Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2000 - Repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.
(Sec. 205) Prescribes procedural guidelines for Federal and State access to records of a holding company (including subsidiaries, associates, and affiliates) of a public utility or natural gas company.
(Sec. 206) Precludes such State access to any person that is a holding company solely by reason of ownership of one or more qualifying facilities under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978.
(Sec. 207) Instructs FERC to promulgate a final rule to exempt such holding companies, as well as exempt wholesale generators and foreign utility companies, from such access requirements. Requires FERC also to exempt from such access requirements any person or class of transactions that is not relevant to the jurisdictional rates of a public utility or natural gas company.
(Sec. 208) Retains the jurisdiction of FERC and State commissions to determine whether a public utility company or natural gas company may recover in rates any costs of affiliate transactions.
(Sec. 209) Declares this Act inapplicable to: (1) the United States; (2) a State or its political subdivision; and (3) a foreign governmental authority not operating in the United States.
(Sec. 211) Grants FERC certain Federal Power Act enforcement powers.
(Sec. 214) Transfers from the Securities and Exchange Commission to FERC all books and records that relate primarily to the functions vested in FERC by this Act.
(Sec. 215) Amends the Federal Power Act to repeal its conflict of jurisdiction guidelines.
(Sec. 216) Authorizes appropriations.
Title III: Tax Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code regarding tax-exempt bond financing of certain electric facilities, to exclude specified open access transactions from the definition of "private business use" (and thus from qualification for tax-exempt status) in connection with an electric output facility owned by a governmental unit.
(Sec. 301) Permits certain bond issuers to make an irrevocable election to terminate certain tax-exempt financing for electric output facilities.
(Sec. 302) Revises IRC special rules for nuclear decommissioning costs to repeal the limitation placed on deposits paid into the Nuclear Decommissioning Reserve Fund.
(Sec. 303) Revises the 85-percent income test for qualification of a mutual or cooperative electric company for tax-exempt status, which requires that 85 percent or more of income consists of amounts collected from members for the sole purpose of meeting losses and expenses. Declares that, to meet such test, no income shall be taken into account from revenues received from nonmembers solely as a result of conforming transmission and distribution operations to meet provisions of a Federal or State plan designed to provide customer choice in electric power supply.