The U.S. House just passed a bill to build more hydro power in the country. The ‘Build More Hydro’ bill passed with unanimity in the Senate, and the House vote was 394 in favor to 14 against. Thus, there is a clear bipartisan goal of increasing hydroelectric power production. Rep. Newhouse noted:
“Once signed into law, this legislation will allow for
the construction of nearly 40 projects totaling over 2.5 gigawatts of baseload
power, improving grid reliability and lowering energy prices.”
The bill also extends
'commence construction' deadlines for critical hydropower projects nationwide.
The bill is expected to help
decrease permitting times and relicensing requirements, which have long been
sought by developers. In my previous blog, I wrote a post about the future
of U.S. hydropower projects back in December
2016, nearly a decade ago, which, by the way, is how long it takes to get some
of these projects approved.
This week, Trump signed
legislation directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend
construction deadlines for roughly three dozen hydro power projects delayed due
to the pandemic and supply chain shortages.
“Today’s law is a breakthrough that delivers 2,600
megawatts of clean hydropower and $6.5 billion in private investment critical
to powering American homes, businesses, and industries,” Malcolm Woolf, the
president of the National Hydropower Association, said in a statement.
In other important hydropower
news, the 339-mile transmission project to bring hydropower from Canada to New
York City has been completed and tested. The transmission project is
known as the Champlain Hudson Power Express, and it will bring up to 1250 MW of
power capacity to the city. The startup date was planned to be in August, but
it will start ahead of schedule, likely in June, ahead of summer heat waves.
This should help grid reliability in the greater NYC metro area.
“We didn’t think it was possible. The state didn’t think
it was possible. We were counting on capacity coming online in August, but
that’s way too late,” Peter Rose, the senior director of stakeholder relations
for Hydro Quebec, told me on a call last night. “We have heat waves in July.
It’ll be good for New York City to count on that 1,250 megawatts of capacity
going into July.”
During testing, hydropower
from the project provided up to a third of the city’s power. Of course, that
was in a low-demand period, but the testing went well, and this should be a
great source of grid stability for the region.
An October 2025 article in Canary Media noted that:
“Nearly 450 hydroelectric stations totaling more than 16
gigawatts of generating capacity are scheduled for relicensing across the
United States over the next decade. That’s roughly 40% of the nonfederal fleet
(the government owns about half the hydropower stations in the U.S.).”
Some of those plants will
shut down because the requirements and costs for relicensing are too much for
them to bear. The relicensing bureaucracy, as it has become known, drastically
slows down relicensing as it must be signed off on by several federal agencies
and includes new NEPA reviews. Clearly, something needed to be done about this
a decade or more ago. The article notes that, as it stands, the average time
period for relicensing is eight years. Some take up to 20 years! That is way
too long. In comparison, it takes 18 months to license a new nuclear plant,
they note.
Woolf noted in that article:
“We know we’ve got load growth. We know we’ve got grid
variability from renewables and extreme weather. The flexibility of hydropower
offers clean, firm generation that is unique,” Woolf said. “At the
same time — through quirk of history — we’ve got so much of
the fleet at relicensing and at risk of surrendering permits. This could be an
amazing opportunity.”
References:
The
U.S. passes law to boost the hydroelectric sector. Heatmap AM. May 12, 2026.
NYC’s
biggest electricity project comes online early, shoring up the grid ahead of
summer heatwaves. Heat Map AM. May 14, 2026.
House
Passes Newhouse/Daines Bill to Build More Hydro, Heads to President's Desk. Rep.
Dan Newhouse. House
Passes Newhouse/Daines Bill to Build More Hydro, Heads to President's Desk |
Congressman Dan Newhouse
US
hydropower is at a make-or-break moment. Alexander C. Kaufman. Canary Media. October
1, 2025. US
hydropower is at a make-or-break moment | Canary Media
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