H.R. 461 (112th): South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act

Introduced:
Jan 26, 2011 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. Jason Chaffetz [R-UT3]
Status:
Died (Passed House)
See Instead:
This bill was re-introduced as H.R. 251 on Jan 15, 2013. See H.R. 251 for current action on this subject.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on October 24, 2011 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced Jan 26, 2011
Referred to Committee Jan 26, 2011
Reported by Committee Jul 20, 2011
Passed House Oct 24, 2011
Cosponsors
1 cosponsors (1R) (show)
Committees

House Natural Resources

Senate Energy and Natural Resources

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain Federal features of the electric distribution system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District, and for other purposes.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated Oct 31, 2011.
8 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

1/13/2012--Reported to Senate without amendment.
(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on September 23, 2011.
The summary of that version is repeated here.) South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act - Requires the Secretary of the Interior, insofar as the Strawberry Water Users Association conveyed its interest in an electric distribution system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District, to convey and assign to the District:
(1) all interest of the United States in all fixtures owned by the United States as part of the electric distribution system and the federal lands and interests where the fixtures are located,
(2) license for use in perpetuity of the shared power poles, and
(3) licenses for use and access in perpetuity to specified project lands and interests and corridors where federal lands and interests are abutting public streets and roads and can provide access to facilities.
Requires the District to assume all liability from the United States for the administration, operation, maintenance, and replacement of such electric distribution system.
Requires the Secretary, before conveying such lands, interests, and fixtures, to be in compliance with all applicable requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and any other law applicable to such land and facilities.
Prohibits anything, except for the uses as granted by license in the shared power poles, from being construed as granting or conveying to the District or any other party, any interest in any facilities comprising a part of the Strawberry Valley Project power generation system or the federally owned parts of the 46 kilovolt transmission system, the ownership of which shall remain in the United States. Prohibits, upon conveyance of any land or facility under this Act:
(1) the conveyed and assigned land and facilities from any longer being considered as part of a federal reclamation project;
(2) the District from being entitled to receive any future Bureau of Reclamation benefits respecting such land and facilities, except for those that would be available to other non-Bureau facilities; and
(3) the United States from being liable for damages arising out of any act, omission, or occurrence related to the land and facilities, including the transaction specified above between the Association and the District. Requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the status of such conveyance, any obstacles to completing it, and the anticipated date for its completion, if the conveyance is not completed within one year of enactment of this Act.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/112/1/hr461.

Background

According to House Report 112-217, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) initiated the development of the Strawberry Valley Project (SVP) in Utah in 1906. Today, the SVP includes the Strawberry Dam and Reservoir, several diversion dams, canals, three power plants and a 296-mile long electric transmission and distribution system. The Strawberry Water Users Association (SWUA), which operated the SVP until 1986 and repaid all applicable construction costs of the electricity distribution system to the federal government, also owned a portion of that system.

In 1986, SWUA sold its portion of the electric distribution system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District (SESD). Since there was a mix of federal and non-federal ownership of the electricity distribution system, Reclamation approved the sale only on the condition that the sale be limited to those portions that were not part of the original SVP or were not constructed on federal lands or easements. At the time, Reclamation, SWUA and the SESD believed that most of the distribution system was non-federal. However, Reclamation recently determined that most of the distribution system was built on federal easements acquired early in the SVP history. Reclamation, as a result, now believes that most of the distribution system still belongs to the federal government. It has not quantified how much of the system it owns, however, due to inadequate paperwork. The federal government's determination has created system management and ownership uncertainty since it is unclear to either SESD or Reclamation what entity owns which portions of the electric distribution system. H.R. 461’s title transfer would resolve this confusion by placing the entire system in local ownership.

Summary

H.R. 461 would direct the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, to transfer the title of the electric distribution system located in Spanish Fork, Utah, to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District.  Under H.R. 461, the Bureau of Reclamation would discontinue oversight of the facilities.  In addition, the Bureau of Reclamation would no longer collect licensing fees from utilities seeking easements to cross those federal lands.  According to CBO, the loss of those collections would have no significant net impact on the federal budget.

Cost

According to CBO, implementing H.R. 461 “would have no significant net impact on the federal budget.”

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

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The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

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