Monday, November 2, 2020
Representatives from both the hydropower industry and environmental conservation associations recently issued a Joint Statement of Collaboration on U.S. Hydropower (“Joint Statement”). The Joint Statement was the product of dialog that began in 2018, convened by Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, and the Energy Futures Initiative. The Joint Statement suggests that, after the decades of strife between the two sides over the environmental impacts of hydropower development, hydropower’s ability to produce carbon-free energy provides the basis for détente that should ease the regulatory path for hydropower development, especially on existing dams that are not fitted with hydroelectric generators.