Sponsors (10)
The bill helps hydropower developers preserve and complete previously authorized projects by reinstating expired licenses and extending construction deadlines—supporting project viability and clean energy capacity—while increasing the risk of delayed local economic benefits and reduced opportunities for updated environmental review and public input.
Utilities and hydropower developers can resume recently expired licenses without re‑licensing, letting projects restart quickly and reducing administrative burdens and regulatory delays.
Hydropower licensees can delay construction starts for up to an additional six years, reducing sunk costs and giving companies flexibility to complete projects when financial or market conditions improve.
Longer authorization windows increase the chance that planned hydropower projects will be completed, helping preserve future clean electricity capacity that benefits rural and broader electricity consumers.
Local communities and governments may see jobs, tax revenue, and other local economic benefits delayed because construction and project buildout can be pushed years later.
Nearby communities and ecosystems face prolonged uncertainty about environmental impacts while projects remain authorized but unbuilt, extending the period of ecological and land‑use ambiguity.
Reinstating expired licenses without a new licensing process reduces opportunities for updated public input and contemporary environmental review, limiting community influence over project decisions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows FERC to grant up to six additional years (in up to three two-year periods) to begin construction on hydropower licenses issued before March 13, 2020, and may reinstate certain recently expired deadlines.
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Daniel Milton Newhouse · Last progress March 11, 2025
Gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to grant additional time for certain hydropower licensees to begin construction. Specifically, for projects licensed before March 13, 2020, FERC may extend the start-of-construction deadline by up to six extra years (as up to three consecutive two-year periods) upon licensee request and a showing of good cause, and may reinstate recently expired deadlines that fell after December 31, 2023 so the new extension can apply from the expired date.