Bill lets power firms jump renewables in grid waiting line.
S. 465 — GRID Power Act · Filed by John Hoeven (R-ND) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
The bill tells the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make new rules. These rules let power firms move certain plants ahead in the waiting line. The bill favors plants that make power on demand, like coal and nuclear. Power firms must show this will make the grid work better. The commission must approve it first.
Who it affects
Power firms, grid operators, and power plants will use these new rules. People may see changes in power costs. Solar and wind plants may wait much longer to hook up.
One thing to notice
The bill favors coal and nuclear plants over solar and wind. Solar and wind plants may have to wait much longer to connect.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Republicans.
- Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Apr 15, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy. Hearings held”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
15 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 17 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $10,208,610 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 38 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 95% of bills with any report.
John Hoeven, who sponsored the bill, received $269,275 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Edison Electric Institute — $4,248,610 in 2 reports
- Duke Energy Corporation — $2,280,000 in 1 report
- National Mining Association — $820,000 in 1 report
- Entergy Services LLC — $610,000 in 1 report
- American Electric Power Company, Inc. and Affiliated Corporations — $380,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — The federal agency that makes rules for power firms and the grid.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,387 characters) on Aug 20, 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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