Congress demands utilities expose grid costs—and how much you're paying

What it does

This bill requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to modernize how electric utilities report data about transmission projects, costs, and interconnection queues—making that information standardized, searchable, and publicly available. It also directs the Department of Energy to build a public dashboard and conduct research on why transmission and grid connection costs are rising, what value ratepayers get, and how to make the grid more efficient and affordable.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to standardize utility reporting, centralize grid data, and fund research into transmission costs and efficiency—all aimed at public accountability and informed policymaking. It is not a subsidy, deregulation, or narrow carve-out; it is a transparency and research infrastructure bill.

What the text implies

• Standardized, public interconnection queue data may accelerate renewable energy project development by reducing information asymmetry and enabling third-party analysis of bottlenecks—potentially disrupting incumbent utility planning assumptions.
• The Interconnection Data Dashboard and cost-driver research may expose regional disparities in interconnection fees and timelines, creating political pressure for FERC to harmonize standards or reform cost-allocation methodologies.
• Mandatory reporting of capital structure, return-on-equity, and incentive adders will expose utility profit margins and regulatory incentives to public scrutiny, potentially constraining future rate-base growth.
• The bill's emphasis on 'grid-enhancing technologies' and 'latent capacity' research may shift investment priorities away from traditional transmission buildout toward software, sensors, and optimization—affecting capital-intensive utility business models.

Who it affects

Ordinary citizens benefit from transparency into how utilities spend ratepayer money on grid infrastructure and why costs are rising. Public access to standardized data, research on cost drivers, and a public dashboard enable informed debate about grid investment priorities and may support regulatory scrutiny of utility spending. The bill does not impose direct costs on households and creates tools for accountability.

Who stands to gain

• grid-enhancing technology vendors (dynamic line rating, topology optimization, flow control)
• renewable energy developers (via reduced interconnection queue opacity)
• energy analytics and software firms (via API access to standardized data)
• research institutions and national laboratories (via DOE funding for analysis)

Named in the bill

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Information Administration (EIA), National Laboratories, transmitting utilities, Transmission Organizations, Federal Power Act

Where it stands

13 cosponsors: 13 Democrats.

• Nov 20, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Nov 20, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,530,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 28 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Sean Casten, the sponsor, reported $783,050 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• Pacific Gas and Electric Company — $3,530,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.