Sponsors (3)
The bill trades greater certainty and narrower mitigation obligations for hydropower operators (reducing potential regulatory burden and costs) against weaker protections for fish and local resource interests, reduced ability of tribes/states to secure remedies, and significant legal and regulatory uncertainty.
Hydropower project licensees (utilities) face clearer standards because required fishways would be tied to mitigation of a project's direct adverse effects on a species' river-system population, narrowing agency discretion.
Hydropower licensees (and potentially local ratepayers) would face lower risk of open-ended or overly burdensome fishway mandates, reducing potential mitigation costs and operational uncertainty.
Utilities, federal agencies, states, tribes, and other stakeholders face legal and regulatory uncertainty and likely increased litigation because the bill inserts unspecified language into the Federal Power Act and narrows ambiguous terms like 'direct adverse effect' and 'reasonable' mitigation.
Local communities, fish populations, and recreational users could experience worsened upstream–downstream passage and slower species recovery because fewer or smaller fishways may be required.
States, tribes, and conservation groups would have reduced ability to secure broader mitigation measures for fish populations affected by hydropower projects, limiting local and tribal authority to protect resources.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Narrows federal hydropower fishway authority so fishways are required only to reasonably mitigate a project's direct adverse effect on a species' population in the affected river system; also amends an unspecified proviso in §797(e).
Official title: Amend the Federal Power Act to modernize the hydropower licensing process, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 21, 2026 by Steve Daines · Last progress July 21, 2026
Modifies federal hydropower licensing law to change how fishways are required and to amend a proviso in the Federal Power Act. The bill narrows the standard for when the Secretaries may require fishways so that a prescribed fishway must reasonably mitigate the project's direct adverse effect on the population of a species in the affected river system. It also amends an earlier proviso in the Federal Power Act (text not provided), which appears to change reservation license conditions but the exact effect cannot be determined from the draft text provided. The changes reduce the scope of mandatory fishway prescriptions by tying them to a specific mitigation standard, which affects hydropower licensees, federal resource agencies, and fish populations and communities that rely on affected waterways. The precise impact of the amendment to the first proviso of 16 U.S.C. § 797(e) is unclear because the inserted language was not included in the draft.