Big power lines: new rules for who pays the bill.
S. 5074 — Enhancing Electric Grid Resilience Act · Filed by Peter Welch (D-VT) · Introduced Jul 22, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets firms that build very large power lines ask FERC to split the cost. The cost split must be roughly fair based on what each area gets. FERC must think about safety, money, policy, and the environment. The bill does not change rules for smaller power lines.
Who it affects
People in regions that get new power lines may pay part of the cost. Firms that build the lines can now ask FERC to spread costs across regions. States may have less control over how costs are split.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say exactly what 'roughly fair' or 'expected gains' mean. This gives firms and FERC a lot of freedom to split costs.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 22, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- FERC — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the government agency that sets rules for power firms.
- roughly — About the same, not exact.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,585 characters) on Aug 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
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