The CHARGE Act is a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 20, 2026, that would ban imports of battery energy storage systems with remote monitoring capabilities if they are manufactured with technology owned or licensed by Chinese entities. The full name is the Countering Harmful Adversarial Rechargeable and Generative Energy Act. It was introduced by Rep. W. Gregory Steube (R-Fla.) as H.R. 7635 and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means, where it sat without co-sponsors as of mid-2026.1Congress.gov. CHARGE Act (H.R. 7635) All Info
What Imports the Ban Would Cover
The bill defines “energy storage system” broadly as any device, module, or product capable of storing electric current for later discharge. “Remote monitoring capability” is defined as any device capable of observing, collecting, analyzing, or disrupting data within information technology, communication, or critical infrastructure systems.2Rep. Steube Official Site. CHARGE Act Full Text
The prohibition reaches systems manufactured with technology licensed or owned by any entity organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China, any jurisdiction within it, or any entity under the jurisdiction, control, authority, or oversight of the Chinese Communist Party.3GovInfo. H.R. 7635 Introduced Text The trigger is the origin of the technology, not just the location of final assembly, so a system built elsewhere using licensed Chinese technology would fall within the ban.
Penalties, Enforcement, and Reporting
The bill directs the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to issue enforcement regulations within 60 days of enactment. CBP would then review the restrictions at 180 days and annually thereafter to decide whether additional measures are warranted.2Rep. Steube Official Site. CHARGE Act Full Text
Violators would face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both, for each shipment containing prohibited articles.2Rep. Steube Official Site. CHARGE Act Full Text
Separately, the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security, would file an annual report to relevant congressional committees on Chinese-developed energy storage systems with remote monitoring capabilities. That reporting requirement would sunset six years after enactment.3GovInfo. H.R. 7635 Introduced Text
Why Congress Is Looking at This
Steube framed the bill as a national security measure, saying in a press release that the United States “cannot afford the risk of China spying on our power grid and the energy consumption of Americans with remote monitoring capabilities.”4Rep. Steube Official Site. Rep. Steube Introduces CHARGE Act
The bill picks up a recommendation from the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 2025 Annual Report to Congress, which urged Congress to “prohibit the import of energy storage systems with remote monitoring capabilities that are manufactured by or made with technology licensed from Chinese entities.” The commission pointed to state-sponsored cyber groups such as Volt Typhoon that have been documented pre-positioning within U.S. critical infrastructure.5U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 2025 Annual Report Executive Summary
How Exposed the U.S. Grid Is
The concern reflects how much of the storage supply chain runs through China. All ten of the top BESS cell suppliers in 2025 were headquartered in China, and only two of the top ten system integrators, Tesla and Fluence, were based outside it.6Benchmark Minerals. Top Energy Storage Cell Suppliers and System Integrators in 2025 A January 2025 Idaho National Laboratory report found roughly 90 percent of inverters, which convert stored DC power to AC for grid use, are manufactured in or source parts from the PRC.7U.S. Department of Energy. Battery Energy Storage Systems Supply Chain Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Grid-scale batteries lean heavily on cloud software, internet connectivity, and remote management for firmware updates and performance tuning. A compromised vendor cloud server could push a harmful software update across an entire fleet, and two-way vendor connections that let the manufacturer alter settings carry more risk than read-only monitoring.8Utility Dive. Experts Raise Concerns About Cybersecurity and Energy Storage A January 2026 RAND commentary noted that major Chinese manufacturers such as CATL, BYD, and Gotion supply both the hardware and the software that governs it, meaning importing their products imports foreign-controlled code that dictates how domestic energy infrastructure behaves.9RAND Corporation. Its Time to Treat Chinas Connected Energy Systems as a National Security Issue
The Camp Lejeune Episode
One case cited often in the debate involves Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In 2022, Duke Energy received a $22 million contract from the Marine Corps base that included a battery system using CATL cells. In December 2023, lawmakers led by then-Chairman Mike Gallagher of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Senator Marco Rubio wrote to Duke Energy warning of “unacceptable surveillance risk” and alleging ties between CATL and entities involved in supplying IT tools to the Chinese military and Ministry of Public Security. Duke disconnected the CATL systems from the grid, committed to replacing them with an American alternative, and pledged to phase CATL out of its supply chain.10House Select Committee on the CCP. Duke Energys Decision to Decommission Camp Lejeune CATL Battery System
Where the Bill Stands and How It Fits With Other Federal Action
As of mid-2026, H.R. 7635 had not advanced beyond its referral to the Ways and Means Committee and had no co-sponsors.11Congress.gov. H.R. 7635 Legislative History Steube sits on Ways and Means, which handles trade and tariff matters, and on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.12Rep. Steube Official Site. Meet Greg
The bill would slot into a wider set of federal moves against Chinese-linked technology in critical infrastructure. In January 2025, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security finalized a rule banning imports and sales of connected vehicle technologies linked to China or Russia; the rule took effect March 17, 2025, and phases in restrictions on covered software with model year 2027 and covered hardware with model year 2030. Its rationale, unauthorized data exfiltration and possible remote control, closely tracks the logic behind the CHARGE Act.13Bureau of Industry and Security. Connected Vehicles Rule Also in January 2025, the Department of Defense added Shanghai-based cellular IoT module maker Quectel Wireless Solutions to its list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States, citing data exfiltration, remote surveillance, and firmware backdoor concerns.145GStore. DoD 1260H and 5G Routers
On the regulator side, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a new reliability standard in March 2023 requiring supply chain risk management, including vendor electronic remote access controls, for low-impact bulk electric system cyber systems, with an effective date in 2026.15Inside Privacy. FERC Approves New Cybersecurity Requirements for Low Impact Bulk Electric The CHARGE Act, by contrast, would work at the border rather than through utility reliability rules, cutting off covered systems before they enter the country.