Sponsors (2)
Official title: Provide for a memorandum of understanding to address the impacts of a certain record of decision on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund.
Introduced March 6, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress March 6, 2025
The bill creates coordinated planning and analyses to protect Western water infrastructure, grid reliability, and ESA-listed species, but that added process risks delaying immediate work and could raise electricity costs or lead to operational restrictions for water and recreation users.
State and local water managers and infrastructure funded by the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund will receive a coordinated plan to address changes from the July 2024 ROD, helping preserve routine operations and infrastructure maintenance.
Grid operators and electricity customers—particularly in rural communities—will get analysis of hydropower impacts and replacement costs, improving planning for reliability and potential mitigation of power shortfalls.
Conservation and public-lands managers will have clearer identification of impacts on ESA-listed fish and wildlife, informing more targeted conservation actions under the Endangered Species Act.
Utilities, rural customers, and critical facilities (e.g., hospitals) could face higher electricity costs if hydropower is reduced and replacement resources or mitigation increase expenses for WAPA or contractors.
State and local governments may see delays to immediate mitigation or infrastructure work because additional administrative planning, MOUs, and assessments add time before on-the-ground actions proceed.
Recreation users and water users could face operational restrictions—such as reduced water releases or altered hydropower operations—resulting from agency analyses and subsequent management changes.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Interior and Energy to enter an MOU to assess how the July 2024 Glen Canyon Dam plan supplement affects the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund, hydropower, grid reliability, and listed species.
Requires the Interior and Energy Departments (through Reclamation and WAPA) to quickly sign a memorandum of understanding after enactment to study and address how the July 2024 Supplement to the Glen Canyon Dam management plan affects the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. The agencies must produce a plan that uses existing hydropower contract data to evaluate and respond to effects on Fund obligations, hydropower production and replacement costs, grid reliability, and impacts to threatened and endangered species, while preserving APA rights. The bill does not appropriate new funds or change law on species protections; it directs an interagency review and planning process in consultation with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group and requires identifying operational, financial, and biological impacts and options to address them.