S. 5048 — Hydropower Licensing Affordability Act

This section narrows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s authority to impose conditions on licenses for hydropower projects on federal reservations. It limits such conditions to those the Commission deems necessary to reasonably mitigate the direct adverse effects of the project on the reservation.

This section limits the authority of the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce to prescribe fishways at hydroelectric projects licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Fishways may be required only to the extent they reasonably mitigate the direct adverse effect of the project on the population of a fish species in the applicable river system.