Contact Tobias Sellier, Senior Director of Media Relations and Communications at MediaRelations@PublicPower.org or 202-467-2927
Washington, D.C., January 16, 2025 — The American Public Power Association greatly appreciates the decision to prioritize in the opening days of the 119th Congress legislation to help communities recover from and prepare for natural disasters.
We strongly support, the Promoting Opportunities to Widen Electrical Resilience (POWER) Act (H.R. 164) which will help communities recover from disasters, while they make investment to become more resilient in the future. The bill re-introduced by Reps. Val Hoyle (D-OR) and Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) makes two key improvements to the Stafford Act. First, communities could make hazard mitigation improvements during disaster recovery; and second, communities would not be precluded from hazard mitigation assistance for systems rebuilt during recovery. Collectively, the POWER Act alleviates the painful choice between immediate response and long-term investments, allowing communities to restore power as quickly as possible, while also taking steps to mitigate against hazards in the future. The POWER Act is good for the economy, good for local communities, and good for public power customers.
Every year, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and other disasters effect our communities. If the damage is severe enough to be declared a disaster by the President, then recovery costs are eligible for reimbursement through grants from FEMA. To reduce the likelihood of needing such assistance, FEMA also provides funds for hazard mitigation. The POWER Act will allow more of these funds to be used for their intended purposes – recovery from, and mitigation against, disasters.