Prior to the May 2 Committee energy bills markup, Chairman Bingaman released a draft version of his revised RPS legislation. The new bill is substantially similar to the RPS title approved in the Senate version of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), but it would require utilities to meet a renewables requirement of 15% by 2030, instead of 10% as in EPAct. The requirements would apply to all distribution utilities (jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional) that sell more than 4 million MWhrs of energy/year. That threshold would include about 22 large municipal utilities, according to data prepared by the American Public Power Association. Affected utilities may meet the renewable energy requirements by using tradable credits issued by DOE for energy from new renewable energy projects, non-tradable credits issued for energy from existing renewable resources or by making alternative payment to DOE of 2.0 cents per kilowatt-hour. No credits will be issued for energy generated by an existing hydropower project, but energy generated at such a project may be subtracted from the base on which the renewables requirement is calculated. Incremental hydropower that results from improvements to existing projects made after the date of enactment of the RPS will be considered a "new" renewable resource and receives tradable credits.