A bill to require the Secretary of Energy to prepare periodic assessments and submit reports on the supply chain for the generation and transmission of electricity, and for other purposes.

This bill establishes a comprehensive framework for assessing the electricity supply chain infrastructure in the United States. The legislation directs the Department of Energy to conduct systematic evaluations of the nation's electricity generation and transmission capabilities, creating a formal mechanism for monitoring the health and resilience of critical energy infrastructure. The bill addresses growing concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities in the energy sector by mandating regular assessments that will provide policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the public with detailed information about the state of electricity infrastructure. The assessments are intended to enhance national energy security, improve infrastructure planning, and identify potential weaknesses in the supply chain before they become critical vulnerabilities. By requiring periodic reporting, the legislation creates an ongoing surveillance mechanism that will track changes in the electricity sector's capacity to meet current and future demand while maintaining reliability and resilience against disruptions.

The bill's central mandate requires the Secretary of Energy to prepare periodic assessments examining the entire electricity supply chain, encompassing both generation facilities and transmission infrastructure. These assessments must provide comprehensive analysis of supply chain capabilities, infrastructure conditions, and the overall health of systems that produce and deliver electricity across the nation. The legislation establishes a reporting framework that will capture data on manufacturing capacity, equipment availability, workforce capabilities, and material supply chains that support electricity infrastructure. The assessments will evaluate the adequacy of domestic production capabilities for critical components such as transformers, generators, transmission equipment, and other essential infrastructure elements. The bill creates an ongoing obligation rather than a one-time study, ensuring that the Department of Energy maintains continuous oversight of supply chain conditions and can identify emerging risks or capacity constraints as they develop.

The Department of Energy bears primary responsibility for executing the assessment mandate, with the Secretary of Energy serving as the accountable official. The Department must develop methodologies for collecting and analyzing supply chain data across the electricity sector, likely requiring coordination with utilities, equipment manufacturers, transmission operators, and other industry participants. Implementation will necessitate establishing data collection protocols, analytical frameworks, and reporting standards to ensure consistency across assessment cycles. The Department will need to determine the appropriate frequency for periodic assessments, balancing the need for current information against the administrative burden of data collection and analysis. The bill does not specify dedicated funding mechanisms, suggesting that implementation will occur within existing Department of Energy appropriations and authorities. Compliance mechanisms for industry participants who must provide data to support the assessments remain unspecified, potentially requiring the Department to rely on voluntary cooperation or existing statutory authorities to compel information sharing.

The primary beneficiaries of this legislation include federal and state energy planners who will gain enhanced visibility into supply chain conditions, enabling more informed infrastructure investment decisions. The electricity industry will benefit from improved understanding of supply chain constraints that may affect project timelines and costs. National security agencies will receive critical intelligence about vulnerabilities in energy infrastructure that could be exploited by adversaries or disrupted by natural disasters. The assessments will impose administrative burdens on electricity sector participants who must provide data and information to support the analysis, though the extent of this burden depends on implementation details not specified in the bill. Expected outcomes include earlier identification of supply chain bottlenecks, improved coordination between infrastructure planning and manufacturing capacity, and enhanced resilience of the electricity sector against disruptions. The legislation does not contain sunset provisions, establishing a permanent assessment requirement that will continue indefinitely unless repealed or modified by subsequent legislation.

The bill operates under the federal government's constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce, as electricity generation and transmission constitute quintessentially interstate activities affecting commerce across state boundaries. The legislation builds upon existing Department of Energy statutory authorities related to energy infrastructure oversight and national security. The Secretary of Energy's assessment mandate represents an exercise of information-gathering and reporting functions that are well-established within executive branch agencies. The bill does not appear to preempt state or local authority over electricity regulation, instead creating a federal assessment function that complements existing state public utility commission oversight. The legislation does not explicitly provide for judicial review of the assessments, though the Administrative Procedure Act would likely permit challenges to agency action or inaction related to the assessment mandate. The bill's implementation will interact with existing regulatory frameworks governing electricity markets, transmission planning, and infrastructure development, potentially influencing how federal and state regulators approach supply chain considerations in their decision-making processes.

The bill's lack of specificity regarding assessment frequency, methodology, and data requirements creates significant implementation challenges that may lead to inconsistent execution or inadequate analysis. Without dedicated funding authorization, the Department of Energy must absorb assessment costs within existing budgets, potentially compromising the comprehensiveness of the analysis or diverting resources from other priorities. The absence of clear compliance mechanisms raises questions about the Department's ability to compel information sharing from private sector entities, potentially resulting in incomplete data and flawed assessments. Industry stakeholders may oppose the legislation due to concerns about proprietary information disclosure, competitive disadvantage from revealing supply chain details, and the administrative burden of responding to data requests. The bill does not address how assessment findings will be used in policy decisions, creating uncertainty about whether the reports will drive meaningful changes in infrastructure planning or remain purely informational. Constitutional concerns are minimal given the federal government's clear authority over interstate electricity matters, though questions may arise regarding the extent to which the Department can compel information from state-regulated utilities without explicit statutory authority. The periodic nature of the assessments without specified intervals creates ambiguity that could result in either excessive reporting burden or insufficient monitoring depending on how the Department interprets its obligations.