To direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain Federal features of the electric distribution system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District, and for other purposes.
Passed the Senate on July 10, 2013 (Unanimous Consent)
Signed into law by PresidentBarack Obamaon July 18, 2013
The South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act (H.R. 251; Pub.L. 113–19) is a United States Public Law that was introduced into the United States House of Representatives of the 113th United States Congress. The law transfers ownership of certain electric system equipment, transmission lines, and land (or access to said land) from the federal government to the local organizations in Utah that have been maintaining it for decades. This transfer is the result of mistakes made in the sale of that land from 1986.[1][2][3] The law passed in the House on June 11, 2013 and passed in the United States Senate on July 10, 2013.[4][5]
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they comprise the legislature of the United States.
The One Hundred Thirteenth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives based on the results of the 2012 Senate elections and the 2012 House elections. The seats in the House were apportioned based on the 2010 United States Census. It first met in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2013, and it ended on January 3, 2015. Senators elected to regular terms in 2008 were in the last two years of those terms during this Congress.
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The United States Bureau of Reclamation started the Strawberry Valley Project in 1906.[1] The Strawberry Water Users Association (SWUA) owned and operated part of this electrical system until 1986, when it sold it to the South Utah Electric Service District.[1][2][3] Due to some complicated paperwork mistakes, all parties involved believed that the South Utah Electric Service District believed that it had purchased more of the land and facilities than it actually had.[1][2][3][6] This bill is meant to resolve this issue by transferring the remaining pieces to the South Utah Electric Service District.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operation of the diversion, delivery, and storage projects that it has built throughout the western United States for irrigation, water supply, and attendant hydroelectric power generation. Currently the USBR is the largest wholesaler of water in the country, bringing water to more than 31 million people, and providing one in five Western farmers with irrigation water for 10 million acres of farmland, which produce 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts. The USBR is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States.
An identical version of this bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) - S. 25.[5][7] It passed the Senate on June 19, 2013 by unanimous consent.[8]
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The South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act would require the Secretary of the Interior, insofar as the Strawberry Water Users Association conveyed its interest in an electric distribution system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District, to convey and assign to the District: (1) all interest of the United States in all fixtures owned by the United States as part of the electric distribution system and the federal lands and interests where the fixtures are located, (2) license for use in perpetuity of the shared power poles, and (3) licenses for use and access in perpetuity to specified project lands and interests and corridors where federal lands and interests are abutting public streets and roads and can provide access to facilities.
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The Department of the Interior in the United States is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources; it oversees such agencies as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey, and the National Park Service. The Secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation board. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet. The U.S. Department of the Interior should not be confused with the Ministries of the Interior as used in many other countries. Ministries of the Interior in these other countries correspond primarily to the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. Cabinet and secondarily to the Department of Justice.
H.R. 251 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to transfer title to the electric distribution system located in Spanish Fork, Utah, to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District.[2] Based on information from the Bureau of Reclamation, CBO estimates that implementing the legislation would have no significant net impact on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 251 would have an insignificant impact on direct spending; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. The legislation would not affect revenues.[2]
The electric distribution system was developed as part of the Strawberry Valley Project in the 1920s. The Strawberry Water Users Association, the nonfederal sponsor of the project, satisfied all federal repayment obligations associated with the project in 1974.[2] In 1986, the Bureau of Reclamation transferred financial responsibility for operating and maintaining the system to the South Utah Valley Electric Service District. Under current law, the bureau oversees those activities.
Under the legislation, transfer to the district of title to the electric distribution system would include all federally owned fixtures and the underlying federal land not shared by other facilities. In instances where the underlying federal land is also occupied by other facilities and in the case of shared power poles, permanent access and licensing privileges would be granted to the district to perform required maintenance.[2]
Under H.R. 251, the Bureau of Reclamation would no longer oversee the facilities or collect licensing fees from utilities seeking easements. Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that the loss of those collections would not be significant.[2]
The South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act was received in the Senate on June 12, 2013. It was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders, on Calendar No. 85.[4] The Senate voted by unanimous consent on July 10, 2013 to pass the bill, and it was sent to the President to receive his signature or veto.[4]
President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on July 18, 2013.
Debate and discussion
Speaking in favor of the bill, Senator Hatch said that "giving the South Utah Valley Electric District ownership of its systems just makes sense."[5] Representative Chaffetz, another supporter of the bill, said that the "South Utah Valley Electric Conveyance Act (is) vital for securing diverse energy sources to meet the demands of Utah’s growing population."[5]
In a statement on his Facebook page, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) explained his vote in favor of the bill by saying "the bill holds these non-federal entities harmless for a mistake the federal government made when it oversaw the 1986 sale. Transferring ownership of the system—which no longer brings in any federal revenue—will also reduce costs to the government associated with maintaining the system and administering the land."[6]
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