Earth Equity News

Hydropower Industry Makes Its Case. By Colin Miner, NYTimes, October 21, 2009. "Greater investment in hydropower could create 700,000 jobs and add 60,000 megawatts of power in the next 16 years, according to a report [PDF, 70 pp] commissioned by an industry trade group. That would more than double the number of people currently employed by the industry -- about 300,000 -- and increase the country's production capacity by 60%. The report, commissioned by the National Hydropower Association and conducted by Navigant Consulting, concluded that there is more than 400 gigawatts of untapped hydropower potential within the United States... Of the 80,000 dams in the United States, only 3% were used for energy production... Hydropower officials said that technological advances, including improved turbine design, will do a better job of protecting fish populations... The executive director of the National Hydropower Association, Linda Church Ciocci, said that her group is calling on Congress to take several steps to help the industry, including establishing a national renewable energy standard that recognizes hydropower, increasing federal funding for hydropower research and design, and supporting tax-incentives that give hydropower parity with other renewables. 'We are currently only receiving half of what the other renewables are,' said Ms. Church Ciocci. 'Hydropower must play a critical role in our national energy, environmental, and economic policy.'"