Flurry of Legislative Proposals Reflects Growing Recognition of Hydropower’s Ability to Help Solve U.S.’s Energy and Climate Challenges

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Flurry of Legislative Proposals Reflects Growing Recognition of Hydropower’s Ability to Help Solve U.S.’s Energy and Climate Challenges

DATE:

March 8, 2021

BY:

Malcolm Woolf, CEO & President, NHA

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Flurry of Legislative Proposals Reflects Growing Recognition of Hydropower’s Ability to Help Solve U.S.’s Energy and Climate Challenges

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A pair of new bills from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee highlight the renewed attention that hydropower is receiving in the early days of the 117th Congress. The wideranging bills which address climate change, clean energy standards, and hydropower licensing signal that both Republicans and Democrats are increasingly recognizing hydropower’s value, albeit in different ways.  

The Democratic Clean Future Act can be found here and bill text here, whereas the Republican Hydropower Clean Energy Future Act can be found here and the bill text here.

What is the Democratic Climate Proposal?  

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), re-introduced its “Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act” to achieve net zero carbon pollution throughout the U.S. economy by 2050. A sprawling 982-page bill, the central element of the CLEAN Future Act is a nationwide Clean Electricity Standard (CES) requiring all retail electricity suppliers to obtain 100 percent clean electricity by 2035, in line with President Biden’s call to action for the power sector. 

In a significant advance for hydropower, the proposed CES would assign hydropower a carbon intensity of zero, just like wind, solar, and other renewable resources. As such, both new and existing hydropower resources would be full partners in the effort to decarbonize the grid.  

The only exception to this approach would be for new reservoirs, if any. Hydropower facilities on reservoirs built after the date of enactment would be required to obtain site-specific greenhouse gas (GHG) evaluations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address concerns about potential methane emissions that can be attributed to the reservoir. NHA worked with the bill sponsors over the past year to narrow this provision from previous versions, which would have required all hydropower facilities to undergo site-specific GHG evaluations. 

What is the Democratic Hydropower License Reform Proposal?  

The House Democratic Energy and Commerce Committee leadership chose to tackle hydropower licensing reform because of a growing recognition that the U.S. cannot address the climate crisis without also improving the hydropower licensing process. With 30% of the nation’s hydropower fleet up for relicensing in the next decade, the issue has never been more important. 

The heart of the Democratic hydropower licensing reform proposal is to create a negotiated rulemaking process for inter-agency dispute resolution and a schedule for license issuance. While well intentioned, industry has expressed concerns with the language in the legislation. NHA intends to be actively engaged in this conversation with stakeholders and Congress, participate in hearings, and propose more effective legislative language.  

The Democratic Committee leadership has expressed an interest in exploring alternative approaches that could attract broader stakeholder and bipartisan support. NHA is already brainstorming various options.  

What is the Republican Hydropower Licensing Reform Proposal?  

On March 3, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, re-introduced her own bill, the Hydropower Clean Energy Future Act. The bill focuses on the unique contributions that hydropower, as a clean, renewable, and reliable energy resource, provides to the grid.  

Specifically, the bill would: 

  1. affirm the role of hydropower as an essential renewable resource
  2. promote small and next generation hydropower technology
  3. ensure that license provisions are tailored to mitigate effects from the hydropower facility
  4. designate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the lead agency for the purposes of all Federal authorizations and for complying with any required State or local environmental reviews
  5. improve coordination among permitting agencies by setting schedules, clarifying responsibilities, and establishing mechanisms to resolve disputes among licensing participants. 

What’s Next?  

Congressman Pallone intends to hold a series of hearings to discuss various aspects of the CLEAN Future Act, with specific hearings focused on hydropower issues possibly in May or June. Many commentators see a path by which the measure could be enacted by the House of Representatives. Without significant bipartisan support, however, the ambitious climate bill appears unlikely to advance in the U.S. Senate in this Congress. 

Hydropower license reform, as a stand-alone bill, may not advance intact. Both the Democratic chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with the ranking Republican member, have each recognized that such reform is long overdue and introduced their own bills to address the issue. If the two sides are able to come together and develop a bipartisan hydropower license reform bill, such a measure might be able to defy the odds and become law.  

The flurry of legislative proposals is a reflection of the growing recognition of hydropower’s ability to help solve our nation’s energy, environmental and climate challenges. NHA is continuing to work to translate these opportunities into legislative successes.