OPPOSE THE HYDROPOWER PROVISIONS OF THE SENATE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005

Hydropower Provisions Are Unfair Giveaways to Special Interests

The Senate Energy Bill’s hydropower licensing provisions grant unprecedented power to hydropower dam owners, create a complex and unworkable process for imposing environmental measures in dam licenses, and weaken environmental standards. Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated operating licenses for hydropower dams last 30 to 50 years.  Thus, most projects are now operating under licenses that reflect outdated science, laws, and public values.  The licensing process offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure that new licenses meet modern environmental standards.  The hydroelectric section of the Senate Energy Bill breaks an existing relicensing process that works.

• Hydropower dam owners are given the right to veto environmental measures proposed by States, tribes, and citizens. Resource agencies must accept determinations by hydropower dam owners, even if they have conflicting independent data that demonstrate that the environmental conditions proposed by other stakeholders are superior.
• The bill creates a morass of new processes designed to add new layers of complexity, uncertainty, and delay to the hydropower licensing process.  Impossible deadlines established in the bill do little to offset the new cumbersome processes which are intended to lessen the chances of environmental conditions being added to new licenses. In a power grab, FERC gains a new role outside of their jurisdiction in the new hearing processes. All these new procedures undercut the Integrated Licensing Process, the new streamlined licensing process agreed to by dam owners, FERC, federal and state resource agencies, and citizens just last year.
• The continued protection of fish, wildlife, and recreation is weakened.  Federal resource agencies, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must be given the opportunity to continue to do what they do best – resource protection. The Senate Energy Bill establishes new standards for resource agencies that weaken environmental protection.
• The Energy Bill’s hydropower provisions would break a process that already works and discourage settlements.  Settlement agreements accounted for 71% of the total electrical capacity from 2001 to 2004.  These agreements have been lauded by everyone involved and have stood the test of time, resulting in enhanced natural resources, community development, recreation, economic benefits, and some increases in power production.

For more information, contact Robbin Marks or Eli Weissman at (202)347-7550

Factsheet courtesy of American Rivers