Sponsors (28)
Official title: To amend the Federal Power Act and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require investor owned electric utilities and gas utilities and transmission providers to, when establishing or calculating a return on equity, establish or calculate the return on equity at the lowest return on equity in an established range of reasonableness, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 29, 2026 by Greg Casar · Last progress April 29, 2026
The bill aims to lower consumer costs and curb ratepayer‑funded corporate spending by tightening ROE rules, transparency, and cost-recovery limits, but the trade-off is higher risk of underinvestment in transmission, reliability impacts, and added compliance and legal uncertainty.
Millions of electricity customers (households, small businesses, and taxpayers) would likely pay lower transmission-related charges because the bill forces utilities to use a methodology that generally yields a lower ROE and requires selecting the low end of the range for filings.
Grid users, developers, and communities benefit from more transparent, non‑discriminatory interconnection and access processes plus improved data-sharing with RTOs/ISOs, which should reduce queue abuses, speed fair access, and help integrate renewables.
Consumers and regulators gain stronger oversight and transparency because FERC gets clearer enforcement/audit/penalty authority and the bill requires public disclosure when states allow higher ROEs with quantified bill impacts.
Utilities (and ultimately ratepayers and communities) may face reduced investment in transmission because the mandated lower ROE and the bill's repeal of section 219 remove or reduce financial incentives that attract capital for large transmission projects.
Homeowners and communities could see degraded reliability or deferred maintenance because strict bans on cost recovery combined with lower allowed returns may push utilities to cut spending or delay projects, raising health, safety, and service‑quality risks.
New compliance, reporting, audit, and data‑sharing requirements create administrative costs and possible project delays that utilities may pass to customers or that could slow needed upgrades.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Sets new federal rules for transmission providers and investor‑owned utilities: prescribes a three‑point ROE method, lowers allowable ROE, limits cost recovery, and strengthens FERC oversight.
Creates new federal rules for electric transmission providers and investor‑owned utilities that change how regulators set allowed returns and what costs utilities can recover through rates. It gives FERC authority to require non‑discriminatory interconnection and transmission practices, mandates a specific three‑point method for calculating a "range of reasonableness" for return on equity (ROE), requires utilities to use the low end of that range for official business (with disclosure if a higher ROE is used), and bars rate recovery of many corporate and political expenses. Also requires FERC to adopt implementing rules and gives it enforcement, audit, and penalty authority. The law imposes new compliance and transparency requirements on transmission providers and investor‑owned utilities and changes the financial metrics used in rate-setting to reduce allowed ROE and limit certain cost pass‑throughs to consumers.