Affordable Power, Broken Process: How Regulatory Overreach Taxes America’s Most Reliable Resource
As electricity demand surges at its fastest pace in decades, America’s hydropower fleet is quietly getting buried by its own permitting process. A new NHA analysis of over 5,000 licensing conditions spanning nearly five decades found that hydropower facilities now carry roughly ten times as many mandatory conditions compared against their own earlier license, most with no cost estimate and no clear link to the project itself. This is pushing many hydropower facilities toward shuttering rather than fighting through a process that can take decades and cost millions, just as the grid needs them most. This report takes a deeper dive into this challenge and outlines what Washington can do about it.
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