PacifiCorp and the Klamath River Renewal Corporation formally notified FERC they will not accept co-licensee status for the lower Klamath River dams in a new joint application, seeking instead to transfer the license to KRRC and the states of California and Oregon [P-14803]. Read More
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President Joe Biden named Richard Glick FERC chairman on Jan. 21, taking the gavel from Trump appointee James Danly. Read More
Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as secretary of energy Feb. 25 after the Senate confirmed her nomination earlier in the day. Read More
An Umatilla tribal leader, a longtime Flathead Electric Cooperative board member, and a former fighter pilot are all on tap to become the newest members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Read More
Nearly 53 GW of pumped-storage capacity were in development across the U.S. in 2019, and the resource is growing almost as quickly as all other storage resources combined, DOE said in its latest hydropower market report, released Jan. 19. Read More
FERC on Jan. 19 denied petitions from the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts for an order declaring that the California State Water Resources Control Board waived its Clean Water Act authority to certify relicensing of the Don Pedro Project and the licensing of the La Grange Project. Read More
HydroLand announced Feb. 25 it had acquired 13 run-of-river hydro projects totaling about 25 MW from Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA). Read More
The developer of the Swan Lake North Pumped Storage hydro project has asked FERC for a two-year extension of its construction deadlines, to April 30, 2023, to start construction and to April 30, 2028, to finish it. The 400 MW closed-loop project will be sited in Klamath County, Ore. The requ… Read More
Nearly two years ago, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) surprised a crowd of conference attendees in Boise when he revealed he was having behind-the-scenes conversations to figure out what it would take to breach the four lower Snake River dams. Read More
A study by NOAA Fisheries scientists finds that Snake River spring-summer Chinook are on a fast track toward extinction, and ocean warming is the main culprit. Read More
Despite a massive boat inspection program to prevent quagga and zebra mussels from populating Northwest rivers and streams, the tiny creatures have found another way to reach the region—through pet stores. Read More
Nine groups representing Northwest consumer-owned electric utilities are asking to have at least four representatives—one from each state—on the Columbia Basin Collaborative's leadership committee, which is envisioned to have a total of 16 to 20 members. Read More
Federal action agencies on the Columbia River Technical Management Team agreed March 3 to coordinate with fish managers in the future before implementing a load-following operation at Dworshak Dam known as "within day load shaping." Read More
The operations at 13 dams in Oregon's Willamette Basin are on the verge of change. Read More
The California Department of Water Resources said it will receive another $308 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as reimbursement for expenses associated with reconstruction of spillways and emergency-response requests for the 2017 Oroville Dam spillways incident. Read More
British Columbia Premier John Horgan says there was no choice in his government's decision to recommit to completing the half-finished Site C hydroelectric project on the Peace River in northeastern B.C. because it was "beyond the point of no return." Read More
Amid a torrent of requests to take a deeper look at fish passage in its federal relicensing process, Seattle City Light has agreed to expand its fish passage study to include all three dams in its Skagit River Project [P-553], and to evaluate salmon and steelhead habitat potential between an… Read More
FERC on Feb. 18 issued a preliminary permit to Daybreak Power for the Navajo Energy Storage Station [P-15001]. Read More
FERC issued a license to Oregon State University on March 4 to build and operate a 20 MW offshore, wave-energy testing facility, capping a regulatory effort dating back to 2012. Read More