Relicensing Process Research Articles

Science in action or science inaction? Evaluating the implementation of "best available science” in hydropower relicensing

Over the next two decades, half of all hydropower projects in the USA will require relicensing by the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC). Relicensing proceedings invoke a range of informational sources and agency regulators are tasked with using the “best available science” (BAS) to make informed decisions about hydropower operations and management. Although embraced as the standard, BAS is not well-defined. The Kennebec and Penobscot River watersheds in Maine provide an ideal opportunity for studying BAS in the relicensing process in the context of fish passage concerns. Using citation analysis and an online survey, we identified informational sources used in relicensing decisions for dams in this system and assessed agency perceptions of BAS. Analysis of relicensing documents (n=62) demonstrates that FERC and licensee documents are highly similar in citation composition. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) documents typically cite more sources and are three times more likely to cite peer-reviewed sources than FERC and licensee documents. Survey data reveals that federal and state agency respondents (n=49) rate peer-reviewed literature highly as BAS, followed by university, agency, and expert sources while industry and community sources rate poorly. Federal respondents report using peer-reviewed/academic sources more frequently and expert sources less frequently than state respondents. Overall, the agreement between individuals with respect to the valuation of sources is low. The reported differences in information use may be linked to disparities in the access to certain sources of information, particularly peer-reviewed literature. Enhanced understanding of information use may aid in identifying pathways for better informed relicensing decisions.

Medical conditions and driving fitness of older Singaporean taxi drivers.

Taxi driving has been associated with the risk of various diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipaemia, back pain). Little is known about the relationship between health conditions and driving fitness of older taxi drivers who continue to work. To investigate the (i) prevalence of medical conditions and (ii) relationship between age and medical conditions, with on-road driving tests in the relicensing process of older taxi drivers aged ≥70 years, prior to the mandatory retirement age of 75 years. We analysed retrospectively all relicensing records (N = 855) of taxi drivers aged 70, 73 and 74 years that were submitted from April 2014 to April 2015. All passed their medical fitness screening. Ninety-eight per cent passed their driving tests. Thirty-one per cent, 36% and 24% reported none, one and two medical conditions, respectively. These included hypertension (56%), eye disease (25%; cataracts 19%), diabetes (24%), corrected hearing impairment (14%), hyperlipaemia (12%) and heart disease (9%). Deafness (P < 0.001) was associated with older age. No past medical condition affected driving outcome. Older Singaporean taxi drivers were healthy and generally competent drivers. Early effective preventive health screening and modifiable lifestyle intervention are recommended in older taxi drivers.

Overlooked trade‐offs of environmentally protective hydropower operation: Impacts to ancillary services and greenhouse gas emissions

AbstractThe relicensing of large hydropower projects in the United States often enforces environmental constraints such as minimum instream flows. These requirements can reduce hydropower's negative environmental impacts but may come at a cost of reduced electric generation and revenue. During the federal hydropower relicensing process, participants negotiate these environmental and economic trade‐offs based on coarse models, often conflating impacts on generation and revenue, overlooking ancillary services (AS) markets, and ignoring potential greenhouse gas (GHG) implications. Using a case study of a 362‐MW hydropower project in California, this research conducts higher resolution modelling to compare energy generation, AS provision, revenue, and GHG impacts of two hydropower operating regimes. The environmentally protective regime reduces average generation by 6% but increases AS provision by 2%. Total average revenue decreases by 3.5% under environmental constraints using current electricity prices (and by only 1.1% when modelled with projected 2030 electricity prices), indicating that generation impacts should not be equated with revenue impacts during relicensing. In the California electricity market, this reduced hydropower generation is replaced primarily by natural gas, resulting in an estimated 30,000 additional tons of CO2 emitted annually. These positive and negative externalities are not adequately examined in the hydropower relicensing process.

Does collaboration affect the duration of environmental permitting processes?

While collaborative governance has many benefits for environmental planning and management, those benefits are not politically feasible if they impact on process efficiency. This study assesses collaboration's effect on the duration of water permitting processes, specifically the United States’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's hydropower relicensing process. Collaboration was measured using a survey of participants in 24 recent hydropower relicensing processes. A Cox proportional hazards model with mixed effects assessed the relationship between collaboration, regulatory framework, hydropower facility characteristics, and relicensing process duration. Collaboration was not associated with time to license. Instead, process duration depended on the regulatory framework (especially the switch to the Integrated Licensing Process and presence of endangered species) and facility characteristics (generating capacity and facility type). The results suggest that agencies should consider engaging collaboratively during planning and permitting, given that collaboration's benefits to decision quality do not incur a cost on overall process time.

Linking Network Structure to Collaborative Governance

How do social networks differ between highly collaborative and less collaborative forms of governance? Drawing on a prior study that characterized the level of collaboration for three federal hydropower relicensing processes, we develop exponential random graph models of meeting attendance and participation networks. We find that the highly collaborative relicensing process had lower overall density and a propensity for relatively fewer and stronger interactions. Reciprocity is highest in the high-collaboration process, indicating that it is characterized by mutual interactions. In the low-collaboration process, patterns of connections between any three members of the network displayed a more unidirectional structure, suggesting asymmetrical interactions between active versus passive members of the network. By linking network structure to collaborative dynamics, this study helps elaborate potential mechanisms of successful collaboration.

The Kembs project: environmental integration of a large existing hydropower scheme

The environment was a major issue for the Kembs relicensing process on the upper Rhin River. Since 1932, Kembs dam derives water from the Rhine River to the "Grand Canal d'Alsace" (GCA) which is equipped with four hydropower plants (max. diverted flow: 1400 m3/s, 630 MW, 3760 GWh/y). The Old Rhine River downstream of the dam is 50 km long and has been strongly affected by works (dikes) since the 19th century for flood protection and navigation, and then by the construction of the dam. Successive engineering works induced morphological simplification and stabilization of the channel pattern from a formerly braided form to a single incised channel, generating ecological alterations. As the Kembs hydroelectric scheme concerns three countries (France, Germany and Switzerland) with various regulations and views on how to manage with environment, EDF undertook an integrated environmental approach instead of a strict "impact/mitigation" balance that took 10 years to develop. Therefore, the project simultaneously acts on complementary compartments of the aquatic, riparian and terrestrial environment, to benefit from the synergies that exist between them ; a new powerplant (8,5 MW, 28 GWh/y) is built to limit the energetic losses and to ensure various functions thereby increasing the overall environmental gain.

Strategic and temporal substitution among anglers and white-water kayakers: The case of an urban regulated river

Urban recreational landscapes, including rivers, are subject to increased demands for energy production as well as other uses. Recreationists apply a range of behavioral strategies to achieve and maintain their preferred experiences and outcomes as much as possible in these ever changing environments. Although resource and activity substitution are well known coping strategies for recreationists, less is known about strategic and temporal substitution. We studied how whitewater kayakers and salmon anglers applied strategic and temporal strategies to cope with a highly variable river environment due to hydro-peaking, a production scheme that may become increasingly common as hydropower is combined with other sources of renewable energy. We identified a range of behavioral strategies that recreationists use to better cope with frequently changing water levels, including ad-hoc and planned temporal substitution and tactical and spatial substitution. While kayakers used mostly temporal and spatial substitution, anglers applied tactical substitution, such as changing gear and tackle, and improving their skills specifically in response to unfavorable conditions. Future research should seek to confirm and expand the investigation of temporal and strategic substitution to other recreation activities and to other countries and regions. Management implicationsThe study highlights a range of useful, cost-effective mitigation alternatives supported by outdoor recreationists. The mitigation strategies will become more relevant in the future, as policies and licenses for hydropower generation are currently reviewed in many countries. The societal demand for different types of renewable energy has increased the demand for water impoundment facilities when implementing hydro-peaking for electricity generation during peak periods of demand. The relicensing process provides opportunities to better address the multi-functional demands on regulated rivers and to reduce negative impacts of hydropower generation. Increased and formalized contact between users and the hydro company, better information, and physical modifications are all highly relevant mitigating measures that would enhance the suitability of the study area for recreation within the existing regulation regime, with several of these measures specifically improving temporal substitution.

Hydropower licensing and climate change: Insights from cooperative game theory

Cooperative game theory solutions can provide useful insights into how parties may use water and environmental resources and share any benefits of cooperation. Here, a method based on Nash and Nash–Harsanyi bargaining solutions is developed to explore the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing process, in which owners of non-federal hydropower projects in the United States have to negotiate their allowable operations, with other interest groups (mainly environmental). Linkage of games to expand the feasible solution range and the “strategic loss” concept are discussed and a FERC relicensing bargaining model is developed for studying the bargaining stage (third stage) of the relicensing process. Based on the suggested solution method, how the lack of incentive for cooperation results in long delay in FERC relicensing in practice is explained. Further, potential effects of climate change on the FERC relicensing are presented and how climate change may provide an incentive for cooperation among the parties to hasten the relicensing is discussed. An “adaptive FERC license” framework is proposed, based on cooperative game theory, to improve the performance and adaptability of the system to future changes with no cost to the FERC, in face of uncertainty about future hydrological and ecological conditions.

Time to Pick a Fight? Interest Group Decision Making to Enter the Hydropower Regulatory Process

Assuming that interest groups, like households, firms, or any other structured organization, have limited resources but broad objectives, how do they pick and choose which regulatory battles to fight? The issue of interest group battle choice has received little direct attention in the literature, in large part because defining the state space of total interest group activity is often difficult to do in practice. This paper is able to overcome such a difficulty by drawing on a unique dataset regarding the hydroelectric dam relicensing process in the United States. In this context, there is evidence that what is most consistently significant in affecting the battle entry decision across the interest groups under study is strategic considerations - how many allies are expected to also get involved in a particular fight and, even more importantly, who the enemy is that you'll be up against.

Time to Pick a Fight? Interest Group Decision Making to Enter the Hydropower Regulatory Process

Assuming that interest groups, like households, firms, or any other structured organization, have limited resources but broad objectives, how do they pick and choose which regulatory battles to fight? The issue of interest group battle choice has received little direct attention in the literature, in large part because defining the state space of total interest group activity is often difficult to do in practice. This paper is able to overcome such a difficulty by drawing on a unique dataset regarding the hydroelectric dam relicensing process in the United States. In this context, there is evidence that what is most consistently significant in affecting the battle entry decision across the interest groups under study is strategic considerations - how many allies are expected to also get involved in a particular fight and, even more importantly, who the enemy is that you'll be up against.

Sources of Bureaucratic Delay: A Case Study of FERC Dam Relicensing

This paper investigates the sources for regulatory delay in bureaucratic decision making, testing regulatory capture, congressional dominance, and bureaucratic discretion theories of agency behavior. The empirical context concerns relicenses issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for hydroelectric dams, which have taken anywhere from just ten months to over sixteen years to be issued. The reasons for this heterogeneity in regulatory processing times can be expected to be varied and numerous and indeed we find evidence that outside interest groups, the legislature, and bureaucratic discretion are all significant in affecting regulatory processing times. Our most intriguing results concern the effects of environmental interest groups, which, despite their apparent benefit/cost motivation to hasten the relicensing process (independent of relicensing outcomes), overall end up slowing it down. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Undamming rivers: a review of the ecological impacts of dam removal.

Dam removal continues to garner attention as a potential river restoration tool. The increasing possibility of dam removal through the FERC relicensing process, as well as through federal and state agency actions, makes a critical examination of the ecological benefits and costs essential. This paper reviews the possible ecological impacts of dam removal using various case studies. Restoration of an unregulated flow regime has resulted in increased biotic diversity through the enhancement of preferred spawning grounds or other habitat. By returning riverine conditions and sediment transport to formerly impounded areas, riffle/pool sequences, gravel, and cobble have reappeared, along with increases in biotic diversity. Fish passage has been another benefit of dam removal. However, the disappearance of the reservoir may also affect certain publicly desirable fisheries. Short-term ecological impacts of dam removal include an increased sediment load that may cause suffocation and abrasion to various biota and habitats. However, several recorded dam removals have suggested that the increased sediment load caused by removal should be a short-term effect. Pre-removal studies for contaminated sediment may be effective at controlling toxic release problems. Although monitoring and dam removal studies are limited, a continued examination of the possible ecological impacts is important for quantifying the resistance and resilience of aquatic ecosystems. Dam removal, although controversial, is an important alternative for river restoration.

Commentary: The Clark Fork Settlement: Collaboration, Consensus, and Hydropower Project Relicensing

In 1993, in an attempt to avoid the traditional lengthy, costly, and often controversial process of relicensing hydropower projects, Avista Corporation initiated a novel collaborative approach that brought together a number of disparate actors to craft a consensus relicensing application. The company's interest in a cooperative settlement was driven by continuing changes in the economic, political, and regulatory environment of relicensing. Over the last three decades various regulatory actors have placed a greater emphasis on environmental protection, increased competition in the electricity industry, and opened the relicensing process to new participants. There were three primary issues in the settlement discussions: the level of funding Avista would commit to environmental mitigation, species protection and habitat restoration, and the future operation of hydropower projects. The negotiated settlement provides the company with a degree of cost and regulatory certainty, while environmental organizations and government wildlife agencies gain an accelerated time-frame for mitigation and protection activities and a secure funding commitment. The Clark Fork settlement is evidence that negotiated compromises to relicensing applications may in certain circumstances become an effective means to balance economic and environmental values.

U.S. Congress to consider streamlining dam relicensing

Between the years 2000 and 2010, 220 nonfederal hydropower projects in the United States are due for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a government agency. These projects, with a combined capacity of 22 gigawatts, or 20% of the U.S.‐installed hydropower capacity, are among the 1600 hydropower projects at over 2000 dams that FERC regulates under the Federal Power Act.Some backers of hydropower say the relicensing process, by which dams can obtain renewed, 30‐ to 50‐year licenses, is too cumbersome, and they favor new legislation to streamline and speed up the process.

Dementia and the Older Driver

The association between dementia and driving errors in older adults has been anecdotally noted by clinicians and caregivers. However, until recently, little empirical documentation of this association existed. This paper provides a critical review of available research on dementia and driving and discusses issues that must be considered in attempting to apply this developing body of research to practical problems, such as the relicensing process for selected drivers. This is followed by a discussion of recent research relevant to the development of potential procedures for screening patients with dementing illness--particularly Alzheimer's disease--for probable driving risk.