Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Jim Risch (R-ID), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on July 21 introduced the Hydropower Licensing Affordability Act.
The bill would amend sections 4(e) and 18 of the Federal Power Act (FPA) to clarify that mandatory conditions for the licensing of non-federal hydropower projects must be limited to those that are necessary to reasonably mitigate the direct adverse effects of a project on federal reservations and fish populations, respectively.
Currently, natural resource agencies can require mandatory conditions that must be met for the project to proceed, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) cannot reject them regardless of cost, impact, or whether the condition is directly relevant to the project.
Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-OR) introduced the companion bill (H.R. 9337) in the House last month, which APPA, along with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Edison Electric Institute, support as outlined in a letter they recently sent to leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
A similar letter was sent to leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by APPA, NRECA and EEI on July 23.
Also on July 21, Senators Daines, Risch, and Murkowski sent a letter to FERC, the Department of Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Commerce to initiate rulemakings to address abuses of mandatory conditioning under sections 4(e) and 18 of the Federal Power Act.
Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Alan Armstrong (R-OK), Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) also signed the letter.
Specifically, the senators ask that FERC and resource agencies should initiate rulemakings to:
1. Limit mandatory conditions to those that address direct effects of a project,
2. Limit the scope of the project area to its immediate vicinity,
3. Reasonably define ‘fishway’ to clarify that prescribed structures are intended only to address direct impacts to fish passage,
4. Require conditions to be backed by the best available science,
5. Require agencies to provide a statement with any conditions that demonstrates equal consideration to the effects of the condition “on energy supply, distribution, cost, and use; flood control; navigation; water supply; and air quality (in addition to the preservation of other aspects of environmental quality),” as required in Section 33, and
6. Ensure that conditions are not overly burdensome or costly.
