Natural Resources and Energy

This substitute bill allows target practicing with a BB gun, projectile weapon, or firearm by a 16 or 17 year old without direct supervision of a person age 21 or above provided the 16 or 17 year old has permission of a parent or guardian and the 16 or 17 year old has completed a hunter education course. Additionally, a 16 or 17 year old is allowed to hunt without direct supervision if they are in possession of a valid Delaware hunting license.

This Act revises the procedures before the Environmental Appeals Board as follows: • Streamlines the appeal procedures to avoid unnecessary delays in the permitting process. • Addresses a ruling from the Superior Court in 1986, Worldwide Salvage, Inc. v. Env’t Appeals Bd., 1986 WL 3650 (Del. Super. Ct. Jan. 30, 1986), which held that there is no right to appeal to the Environmental Appeals Board decisions by the Secretary to grant permits relating to subaqueous state lands. Like House Bill No. 456 (153rd General Assembly), this Act allows persons substantially impacted by the grant of a subaqueous lands permit may appeal to the Environmental Appeals Board. • Eliminates any appeal of a finding by the Secretary regarding consistency with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act because there is a federal process for these appeals and a state appeal process would conflict with the federal appeals process. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This legislation shall be known and may be cited as the “Load Forecast Accountability Act.” Recent reports by PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM), have highlighted that electricity demand across the PJM footprint, including Delaware, is projected to grow due to data centers, electrification of vehicles and buildings, and other large load additions. PJM recently projected that, by 2030, PJM expects to add 32 GW of load to the grid – 30 GW of which is attributable to data centers. PJM relies upon load forecasts submitted by Commission-regulated electric distribution companies in Delaware to establish system planning needs and capacity requirements which ultimately have costs associated with both. Accurate, transparent, load forecasting is essential to ensure the adequacy of electric supply, maintain system reliability, and protect Delaware consumers from unnecessary costs caused by overbuilding or underbuilding system resources. There is a critical need for the Delaware Public Service Commission to provide oversight of load forecasting inputs from Commission-regulated electric distribution companies, to ensure accuracy and transparency, and to coordinate with PJM and neighboring state regulators to prevent duplicative counting of projects and customer contracts. The purpose of this Act is to provide the Commission with authority and responsibility to: (1) Review and evaluate load forecasts submitted by Delaware Commission-regulated electric distribution companies to PJM; (2) Coordinate with PJM and other states to ensure accurate system-wide planning; and (3) Access all relevant materials, including confidential agreements, necessary to carry out this oversight. Under this Act, the Commission is required to submit a written report to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Director and the Librarian of the Division of Legislative Services no later than May 1 of each year on its progress in implementing this Act. This report must also be posted on the Commission’s website.

This Act updates the electric vehicle rebate program administered by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in light of changes to federal policies and market forces affecting electric vehicle deployment. The bill provides the Department with additional flexibility to set rebate amounts and improve programmatic offerings. The bill also allows enhanced rebates for an eventual program targeting lower income families.

This bill builds on the customer protections created in Senate Bill 60 in 2025, as follows: 1. Increases transparency in rates and communications by public utilities. 2. Requires regular management audits of certain public utilities and regulatory accounting reviews with each rate case proceeding. 3. Provides greater consistency in the data used by public utilities in rate case proceedings. 4. Limits how much utilities can collect in interim rates before the Commission has ruled on a rate increase request. 5. Prohibits public utilities from recovering certain expenses from ratepayers. 6. Requires the Commission to provide rationale for its decisions in accepting settlement agreements. 7. Puts limits on Delmarva Power’s infrastructure spending, which is a major driver of rate increases. Delmarva Power is operating its electric distribution system at a level far in excess of reliability standards set by the Commission. In support of its parent company’s strategic goal to increase earnings by increasing rate base, Delmarva Power’s annual capital spending leads to frequent rate increase requests to the Commission. Part of Delmarva Power’s capital spending includes “non-mandatory projects,” which by definition are projects that are not required to maintain system reliability. This bill limits the amount of non-mandatory capital expenses the company may recover from ratepayers in rates and is indexed to the company’s rate base, i.e. the value of all its capital assets. Limiting non-mandatory cost recovery will in no way impact Delmarva Power’s ability to restore service after storms nor impact its vegetation management (tree trimming) program.