Own shares in any smart-grid tech companies? If not, the time to stock up might be now.

Thanks to a rare showing of bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives on July 20 rolled out a much-anticipated energy reform bill that, if eventually passed, would give tech companies serving the utility industry a huge lift. It would do so by allowing the utilities to recover via rate setting at least some of their investments in cloud-based software.

The provision on this in the energy package is not a mandate; state utility commissions would have the last word.

Still, the news no doubt had Tom Siebel doing a little dance.

Earlier this year, the CEO and chairman of Redwood City, Calif.–based C3 Energy testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to advocate for the legislation.

“This change,” he said in his presentation, “will accelerate the adoption curve and accessibility of today’s innovative computing models and reduce the cur