[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 18, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 18CFR2.23]

[Page 27-28]
 
           TITLE 18--CONSERVATION OF POWER AND WATER RESOURCES
 
  CHAPTER I--FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
 
PART 2_GENERAL POLICY AND INTERPRETATIONS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 2.23  Use of reserved authority in hydropower licenses to ameliorate 
cumulative impacts.

    The Commission will address and consider cumulative impact issues at 
original licensing and relicensing to the fullest extent possible 
consistent with the Commission's statutory responsibility to avoid undue 
delay in the relicensing process and to avoid undue delay in the 
amelioration of individual project impacts at relicensing. To the 
extent, if any, that it is not possible to explore and address all 
cumulative impacts at relicensing, the Commission will reserve authority 
to examine and address such impacts after the new license has been 
issued, but will define that reserved authority as narrowly and with as 
much specificity as possible, particularly with respect to the purpose 
of reserving that authority. The Commission intends that such articles 
will describe, to the maximum

[[Page 28]]

extent possible, reasonably foreseeable future resource concerns that 
may warrant modifications of the licensed project. Before taking any 
action pursuant to such reserved authority, the Commission will publish 
notice of its proposed action and will provide an opportunity for 
hearing by the licensee and all interested parties. Hydropower licenses 
also contain standard ``reopener'' articles (see Sec. 2.9 of this part) 
which reserve authority to the Commission to require, among other 
things, licensees of projects located in the same river basin to 
mitigate the cumulative impacts of those projects on the river basin. In 
light of the policy described above, the Commission will use the 
standard ``reopener'' articles to explore and address cumulative impacts 
only (except in extraordinary circumstances) where such impacts were not 
known at the time of licensing or are the result of changed 
circumstances. The Commission has authority under the Federal Power Act 
to require licensees, during the term of the license, to develop and 
provide data to the Commission on the cumulative impacts of licensed 
projects located in the same river basin. In issuing both new and 
original licenses, the Commission will coordinate the expiration dates 
of the licenses to the maximum extent possible, to maximize future 
consideration of cumulative impacts at the same time in contemporaneous 
proceedings at relicensing. The Commission's intention is to consider to 
the extent practicable cumulative impacts at the time of licensing and 
relicensing, and to eliminate the need to resort to the use of reserved 
authority.

[59 FR 66718, Dec. 28, 1994]