President’s Infrastructure Plan Leverages Hydropower to Meet Clean Energy Goals
Washington, D.C. (March 31, 2021) – The following is a statement from Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association on the release of President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, an infrastructure package that encourages the development of clean energy.
“The waterpower industry applauds President Biden’s infrastructure plan, which recognizes hydropower as an essential part of a climate solution. To achieve the deep decarbonization goals of a Clean Electricity Standard, we must leverage the flexibility that hydropower provides to the grid. Allowing hydropower to compete equitably with other renewables is important to accelerating the push to a carbon-free grid, while creating well-paying jobs.
“Hydropower continues to be the backbone of America’s clean energy infrastructure, and it stands ready to unlock the estimated 50 GW of new hydropower using existing, non-powered dams and pumped storage. Doing so, while also preserving and enhancing the current hydropower fleet of over 100 GW, requires new and innovative solutions. We encourage the Biden Administration to join the growing support in Congress to include tax incentives to spur investments in dam safety, environmental improvements, pumped storage and grid flexibility. At the same time, we must secure long-term extensions of the production tax credit and investment tax credit to encourage new development at existing hydropower facilities, on existing non-powered dams, and for marine energy. Equally important is a robust investment in the existing federal hydropower fleet, which is long overdue, and needed to spur the creation of over 195,000 jobs throughout the nation.
“We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to enact a package that enables hydropower to be an economic driver and a key source of resiliency for tomorrow’s zero-carbon electricity grid.”
