Utilities must warn customers 30 days before raising rates—and justify increases to feds
H.R. 1149 — POWER Act · Filed by Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ) · Introduced Feb 7, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires retail electric utilities to notify customers at least 30 days before raising rates, with clear explanations of the increase percentage, reasons, and customer impact. Utilities must also notify the Department of Energy 60 days in advance of any rate increase of 5% or more, and DOE must publish a public assessment within 30 days. Utilities that fail to notify customers face civil penalties up to $10,000 and cannot implement the rate increase until notification requirements are met.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a transparency and advance-notice requirement for rate increases, paired with federal review authority for large increases. It is fundamentally a consumer-protection and accountability measure, not a rate-setting or price-control bill.
What the text implies
- DOE's 30-day review and publication of findings may create de facto pressure on utilities to justify increases more conservatively, even though DOE cannot block the increase outright.
- The requirement that utilities cannot implement a rate increase until notification is complete may create administrative delays, particularly for utilities with large customer bases or limited communication infrastructure.
- DOE's post-implementation monitoring mandate (paragraph 4) establishes an ongoing federal surveillance function over utility rate impacts, potentially laying groundwork for future federal rate-setting authority.
- The bill applies only to retail electric utilities (those selling to end-use customers), not to wholesale generators or transmission operators, creating a potential gap in transparency for vertically integrated utilities' internal cost transfers.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary consumers gain advance notice, transparency about rate justifications, and a formal channel to provide feedback before rates take effect. DOE's public review and mitigation recommendations create an additional layer of scrutiny on large increases, potentially slowing or moderating them. The 30-day notice period gives households time to adjust budgets or seek assistance.
Named in the bill
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Department of Energy (DOE), retail electric utilities, electric consumers, Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA)
Where it stands
- Feb 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 7, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,456 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Utilities must warn customers 30 days before raising rates—and justify increases to feds” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1149 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.