PIERRE, S.D. (Michael Doorn / KELO News) – The House and Energy Committee passed two bills unanimously on Friday, one of which seeks to keep prohibited groups from owning or operating an electric facility within the state.
There were two bills heard in the House Commerce and Energy Committee on Friday. House Bill 1027 and House Bill 1049 both from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
House Bill 1038, which seeks to allow the Public Utilities Commission to assess actual costs to large new customers was also set to be heard on Friday, but was removed from the agenda.
HB 1049 would prohibit any prohibited person from owning or operating an electric facility and renders any agreements that grant such control unenforceable if made after July 1, 2026.
The bill passed through the committee by a vote of 13-0.
The prohibited people listed come from the same list of prohibited groups that passed in 2024 with House Bill 1231, which prohibited certain foreign countries from owning ag land within the state.
A “prohibited person” according to the bill is any business, or organization that are owned or partially owned by China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia or Venezuela.
The bill also empowers the PUC to investigate alleged violations and take legal action to enforce compliance, including the appointment of a receiver if necessary. It allows the commission or receiver to recover attorney fees and costs associated with enforcement actions, which can be assessed against the prohibited person or recovered from the sale of their interest.
Chris Nelson, a PUC Commissioner, said the goal is to keep these countries outside of the states electric infrastructure.
“We don’t have any indication that that’s happening today or that it’s about to happen, but we do think it’s appropriate for this state to set a policy to say that that is not appropriate,” Nelson said. “If it’s one of those countries or somebody that’s involved in one of those countries, they cannot own, operate, or control any of the electric infrastructure in this particular state, we think that’s an appropriate policy.”
Nelson said this is meant to copy the ag land statutes that banned those six countries from entering the electric infrastructure.
“If you are one of those six countries or a business from one of those six countries or an individual from one of those six countries, you are covered or designated as a prohibited person,” Nelson said. “There may be other people from other countries that might not be as friendly to us either, but they are not prohibited because, they weren’t prohibited in the ag land statutes.”
Nelson said that if there are shareholders that would be involved with one of these countries, that doesn’t automatically disqualify the company unless it is owned by a majority of that country.
“The purpose of the bill obviously is to make a very public statement that you cannot do that, but if they do, then the second half of the bill is the enforcement mechanism, and it gives the PUC the authority to go into really foreclosure and to, to take ownership of that facility,” Nelson said.
No opponents spoke against the bill.
Republican Rep. Lana Greenfield said it was a good bill and she would support it.
“It was mentioned, that we already or we don’t have anything in place and we’ve not had any problem with this, but I know from the past that it’s very important to be proactive than it is to be reactive so we’re getting ahead of the game,” Greenfield said.
