Hydropower: regulatory history

Prior to 1920, hydropower developers needed a special act of Congress to build and operate a project on navigable streams of Federal lands. In 1920, in response to increased demand for electricity during World War I, Congress enacted the Federal Water Power Act which established the Federal Power Commission. The FPC was composed of the Secretaries of War, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Interior and was responsible for licensing non-Federal hydropower projects that affected navigable waters, occupied Federal lands, used water or water power at a government dam, or affected the interests of interstate commerce. The Act also required the FPC to license only those projects that in its judgment were “....best adapted to a comprehensive plan for improving or developing a waterway or waterways.... .” In addition, the FWPA included provisions for protecting the public’s interest in the use of a national resource (i.e., rivers). In 1930, the FPC was reorganized into an independent Commission composed of five members appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.