On August 9, 2013, President Obama signed into law two pieces of
legislation designed to foster the development of new hydropower in
the U.S. Both bills, the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of
2013 (HREA) and the Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower
Development and Rural Jobs Act (Reclamation Act Amendment), were
passed in both houses of Congress with significant bipartisan
support.
Key findings in HREA focused on the fact that only about 3
percent of the 80,000 existing dams in the U.S. have hydropower
generation, and that the legislation could create 700,000 new jobs
over the next 13 years, based on a Navigant study finding that the
U.S. could add approximately 60,000 MWs of new hydro capacity by
2025.
