S. 3499 — Electric Supply Chain Act

This section defines eight terms for purposes of the Act: (1) appropriate committees of Congress (i.e., the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce); (2) critical material (as defined in section 7002(a) of the Energy Act of 2020); (3) Electric Reliability Organization (as defined in section 215(a) of the Federal Power Act); (4) electric utility (as defined in section 3 of the Federal Power Act); (5) foreign entity of concern (as defined in section 40207(a) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act); (6) generation and transmission supply chain (i.e., the supply chain for electricity generation and transmission, including related components, manufacturing capacity and workforce, and critical materials); (7) relevant stakeholder (i.e., entities involved in electricity generation, storage, transmission, distribution, or related supply chains, including electric utilities, grid component manufacturers, and the Electric Reliability Organization); and (8) Secretary (i.e., the Secretary of Energy).

This section directs the Secretary of Energy, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, to conduct periodic assessments of the supply chain for electricity generation and transmission. Not later than one year after enactment of this Act, and periodically thereafter, the Secretary must submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the most recent assessment that (1) details efforts and opportunities to strengthen, secure, and expand the supply chain; trends, risks, and vulnerabilities in the supply, demand, and availability of related components; national and energy security considerations; barriers to expanding domestic manufacturing and critical materials processing; domestic policies inhibiting investment; effects of reliance on foreign entities of concern; and workforce challenges; (2) identifies emerging issues; and (3) provides recommendations to address those issues and secure and expand the supply chain.