Rep. Schrier’s Letter Prompts This Week’s Energy Hearing on Hydropower Licensing Reform

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday the Energy Subcommittee held a hearing with environmental and hydropower experts in response to a letter sent by Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) earlier this month requesting a hearing on hydropower. Rep. Schrier’s remarks can be found here. Washington state is the nation’s largest hydropower producer, powering nearly two-thirds of the state’s energy each year and most of its carbon-free energy.

“Large hydropower projects, like Chelan County PUD’s Rock Island facility, can have lengthy relicensing processes. This can prove costly and many of the expenses of long licensing efforts are passed along to ratepayers. That’s why it’s imperative that non-federal hydropower operators in my district have a streamlined relicensing process like the one developed through the ‘Uncommon Dialogue,’” said Congresswoman Schrier. 

Known as the Joint Hydropower License Reform package, the proposal was developed by hydropower producers, environmental groups, and tribes over years of discussion through the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment’s Uncommon Dialogue process. This package improves the hydropower licensing process while maintaining environmental protections and restoring sovereignty for Tribal Nations in hydropower-related issues.

Rep. Schrier continued, “I believe the Uncommon Dialogue approach is beneficial because it ensures more timely and efficient decision-making by having parties jointly develop a schedule with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Additionally, this proposal takes important steps to enhance the health of our nation’s rivers and improve tribal sovereignty.”

During the hearing, Rep. Schrier asked National Hydropower Association President Malcolm Woolf how the licensing reform proposal could help reduce the length of issuance and litigation associated with hydropower facility relicensing. Mr. Woolf responded that the Uncommon Dialogue approach would help clarify the scope of the project being relicensed and encourage interagency coordination for greater efficiency in license-issuing. Rep. Schrier had American Rivers President Tom Kiernan highlight how this proposal is a win for the environment because it brings greater transparency to the licensing process overall.

In her closing remarks, Congresswoman Schrier emphasized the importance of licensing reform in accelerating our transition towards a clean energy economy, and the critical role that hydropower plays in that transition.