Hydropower development in the wilderness

Can you build a hydroelectric project in a federally designated wilderness area? No, except where authorized by the President, according to federal law and a recent ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Under federal law, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction over the construction, operation and maintenance of most hydropower projects in the U.S. On May 3, 2019, Premium Energy Holdings, LLC applied to the Commission for a preliminary permit  to study the feasibility of the proposed 1,200- to 2,000-megawatt Haiwee Pumped Storage Project No. 14991, to be located in Inyo County, California. The proposed closed-loop pumped storage project would use water conveyed from the Los Angeles Aqueduct and would consist of two new reservoirs, a lower reservoir upstream of the existing North Haiwee Reservoir and an upper reservoir that would be located in either the Coso Range Wilderness (managed by the Bureau of Land Management) or South Sierra Wilderness (managed by the U.S. Forest Service).

But Section 4 of the federal Wilderness Act prohibits the establishment of power projects, transmission lines, and other facilities in designated wilderness areas, except where authorized by the President. In previous cases, the Commission has said that Section 4 of the Wilderness Act does not prohibit the Commission from issuing a preliminary permit for a proposed project -- but that the Commission's policy is to deny preliminary permit applications “where licensing of the project to be studied is clearly statutorily precluded, because no purpose would be served by issuing a permit for a proposed development that could not be licensed”, such as in a designated wilderness area.

Based on this precedent, because the proposed project would be located within a designated wilderness area, on June 13, 2019, the Commission issued an order denying Premium Energy's application for a preliminary permit for the Haiwee Pumped Storage Project.