Baker River Relicensing: Overview

In 1997, FERC revised its regulations to allow for Alternative Licensing Procedures (ALP). The primary difference between the alternative procedures and the traditional process is that the alternative procedures integrate the consultation and NEPA environmental review processes during the period before the applicant submits a license application. This allows for an Applicant Prepared Environmental Assessment (APEA) to be drafted during the consultation process. This differs from the traditional process where the NEPA analysis is conducted by FERC after the license application has been submitted. In establishing these alternative procedures, FERC's goals were:

• To facilitate greater participation and improved communication among interested parties.
• To promote cooperative efforts between the license applicant and interested parties for sharing information about potential resource impacts and environmental proposals.
• To create more opportunities to narrow the areas of potential disagreement between interested parties, and to enable parties to reach consensus on a settlement agreement to be submitted with the license application.

Applicants must request approval from FERC before using the ALP. In its request, the licensee must demonstrate to FERC that the interested parties have agreed to pursue the alternative procedures for relicensing. In addition to obtaining consensus, the licensee must develop a communications protocol that describes how the interested parties, licensee and FERC will communicate until the final license application and NEPA document are filed with FERC.

Once FERC approves the use of alternative procedures, the licensee, at a minimum, must conduct the following steps:

• Prepare and distribute information on the project works, operation, and environmental resources.
• Conduct an initial public information meeting.
• Involve all participants in a cooperative examination of environmental issues, including the selection and design of required scientific studies.
• File a status report with FERC every 6 months.
• Submit a draft NEPA analysis with the final license application.