LaMalfa Ratepayer Protection Bill Gains Momentum in Senate

For Immediate Release

December 19, 2013

Washington, DC – Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) today announced that a bill he authored to protect public utility ratepayers from cost increases has gained the support of a number of U.S. Senators. The bill, H.R. 1038, removes hurdles public utilities face when buying electricity and natural gas, placing them on a level playing field with private utilities. The bill has been introduced as S.1802 by Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and eight cosponsors from around the nation.

"It isn't often that the House and Senate are on the same page, so this is a recognition of how serious this issue is for our public utility ratepayers. Ensuring that public utilities have same access to energy as other utilities will prevent ratepayers from seeing cost increases in coming years," said LaMalfa. "I'm pleased to see Senator Donnelly's leadership on this bipartisan issue. Having passed the bill in the House with unanimous support, our next steps are shepherding the bill through the Senate and to the President's desk."

LaMalfa introduced the measure earlier this year to remove expensive new restrictions that the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill placed on public utilities, but not on private utilities. The restrictions not only significantly increased reporting and compliance costs on energy purchases, but also restricted the sources public utilities could purchase energy from. LaMalfa's bill received bipartisan support in committee and was passed on the House floor on a 423-0 vote in June of this year.

Doug LaMalfa is a lifelong farmer representing California's First Congressional District, including Butte, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou and Tehama Counties.