News: Proposed Hydro rules enshrines energy industry access
(Washington, DC) The Interior Department is poised to hand the energy industry another favor at the expense of fish restoration, outdoor recreation, and public lands protection, conservation and recreation advocates warned today. A new departmental rule, released for public comment today, provides electric utilities exclusive rights to appeal environmental and recreational requirements at hydropower dams. This policy provides hydroelectric dam owners with direct access to upper echelons of the Interior Department – but not other interested parties such as states, tribes, conservationists, anglers, boaters, local governments, and irrigators.
The groups called on the Interior Department to either drop, or substantially modify, the proposal, warning that in its current form it will intimidate fish biologists and field experts and politicize resource decisions affecting thousands of miles of rivers over the next ten years.
“This is plainly a double standard, and it is another step towards enshrining energy industry dominance along public lands and waters,” said Andrew Fahlund, vice president for protection and restoration at American Rivers. “This policy will obligate future administrations to provide the same degree of access to corporate lobbyists that the current White House does.”
“This policy will ensure that decisions are made on the basis of politics rather than science,” said Steve Moyer, Vice President of Government Affairs and Volunteer Operations for Trout Unlimited. “Any fish biologist that sticks up for the resource can expect an invitation to Washington to chat with a political appointee.”
Electric utilities must consult with Department of the Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs when seeking new operating licenses, or renewing existing licenses, for their hydroelectric dams. During these negotiations, agency field staff assess the environmental, recreational, and cultural consequences of the hydro project and identify steps to ensure that other public needs from the river continue to be met. Under current law, river conservation and recreational stakeholders have equal access to all major decision-making processes. Establishing a one-sided administrative appeals process is a stark departure from all prior federal law and policy through which fish and river resources are conserved.
Conservationists fear that this policy will intimidate agency field staff that might otherwise call for such measures as:
* Installation of fish ladders and other devices to allow fish to safely move up and downstream
* Dam operations that ensure river flows and reservoir levels conducive to recreational use and environmental health
* Construction of boat ramps, camp grounds, and other facilities that provide public access to a public resource
* Restoration of wildlife habitat that has been degraded by the existence of the power project
There are several “hot spots” around the nation where the consequences of this policy will most frequently manifest themselves. Utility-owned hydroelectric dams affect the abundance of salmon runs and other migratory fish along the East and West Coasts and the Great Lakes. In California’s Sierra Nevada, hydroelectric dams determine the productivity and accessibility of dozens of rivers and hundreds of trout streams. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, striped bass and shad fisheries will never fully recover unless utilities take steps to ensure these fish can move safely between coastal and inland waters.
“Several recent and successful hydropower licensing agreements show that such a harmful, one-sided appeal mechanism is not needed, said Moyer. Working cooperatively with agencies of the Department and some conservation-minded electric utilities, American Rivers and Trout Unlimited have developed some fantastic new accords to restore fisheries and improve river flows in places such as Hat Creek, California, the Penobscot River in Maine, and the Deschutes River in Oregon.”
“The consequences of this policy will be measured in fish that are never caught, boats that are never launched, family trips that are never taken, and fond memories that are never shared,” Fahlund said.