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Hydropower industry must pay its fair share
By Andrew Fahlund
March 7, 2001
As House weighs role of public lands in energy policy, American Rivers urges compensation for true impacts of hydropower
Contact: Andrew Fahlund, afahlund@amrivers.org
202-347-7550
WASHINGTON, DC÷In trying to expand energy production, Congress could end up lowering environmental standards and increasing the generous subsidies that owners of private hydropower dams already enjoy on federal public lands, American Rivers warned following a hearing today before the House Resources Committee.
At the congressional hearing, witnesses representing coal, oil and gas, and hydropower interests testified on ways to expand energy production on federal lands. No witnesses were invited to testify on the environmental impacts of resource extraction and hydropower production on public lands.
Hydropower dams, although often portrayed as clean and renewable power, have significant environmental impacts. They can flood valuable habitat, degrade rivers by preventing fish from migrating to their spawning grounds, alter water temperatures and downstream flows, and hinder river recreation.
"The hydropower industry already enjoys a sweet deal on public lands across the country," said Andrew Fahlund, Policy Director for Hydropower Programs at American Rivers. "They pay a pittance for the lands that they occupy÷and the public picks up the tab for the environmental damage."
In FY2000, 500 private dams paid just $7.3 million for the privilege of using public lands÷which is .07% of the estimated revenues from those dams. Studies indicate fair market value for the use of those lands could exceed several hundred million dollars. Under the current system, 12.5% of that money is deposited in the General Treasury, 50% is deposited in the Reclamation Fund, and the remaining 37.5% is paid out to states and counties where the projects are. Many question the logic of transferring revenues from all around the country to the Reclamation Fund, which gets used to develop irrigation water in the western United States.
Private hydropower dams are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It charges them for the use of public lands using a fee schedule developed by the U.S. Forest Service for power line rights of way. This system already grossly undervalues riverfront and river bottom habitat that is among the most valuable kinds of wildlife habitat. And soon, legislation will be introduced into the House and Senate that would reduce input from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service into FERC's decisions on private dam relicensing.
"It's time that the hydropower industry paid its fair share for the privilege of exploiting public resources," said Matt Sicchio, coordinator for the Hydropower Reform Coalition, a consortium of 75 national, state, and local conservation and recreation groups working for river conservation and restoration by improving dam operations.
"Rather than offering the hydropower industry subsidies and exemptions from environmental requirements, Congress should institute a system that charges market value for the use of public lands, and puts a large portion of that money to use restoring the rivers that have been impacted by the dams."
For more information on this and other impacts of large scale hydroelectric projects visit American Rivers or go to the main Hydro page at CREST.
Bibliography:
American Rivers, March 2001
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