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Senator presses DOE over delayed hydropower grants, cites 78% cut in line item
Summary
At a Senate committee hearing, a senator said hydropower funding appears to have been cut 78% and urged the Department of Energy to release previously awarded hydropower incentives for Alaska projects (Salmon Creek, Cooper Lake, Green Lake, SEPA grid resiliency) before the construction season; the DOE secretary said funding was recategorized and pledged follow-up.
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, a senator said that "in looking at the budget, hydropower funding [was] reduced by 78%" and pressed the Department of Energy for an explanation and a clear timeline to release previously awarded hydropower incentives.
The senator said the department had all application materials for the Sept. 2024 247 hydropower incentives about 18 months ago but that funds for projects including Salmon Creek, Cooper Lake, Green Lake and a SEPA grid resiliency project have not been released. "We need a clear timeline on when these funds can be released so that they don't miss these upcoming construction season[s]," the senator said, noting rising costs could make delayed funding untenable.
The DOE secretary responded that the apparent reduction reflected a recategorization in the budget rather than an outright cut, saying, "there isn't the dramatic cut it looks like; it's just different categorizations. We have a new category now, base load power ... and so there's hundreds of millions of dollars of hydro funding in there." He said the new "base load" line bundles gas, coal, hydro and nuclear and that the department remains "passionate about hydro."
The secretary acknowledged implementation hurdles communities face, including the time and expense of repermitting older dams and opportunities to increase output by repowering or upgrading turbines. He mentioned DOE staff engagement with developers and identified technical and permitting barriers as reasons the department monitors projects closely.
Both the senator and the secretary agreed to follow up after the hearing. The senator asked DOE to provide a timeline so Alaska projects do not miss the construction season; the secretary committed to pursue the matter with staff and to work on ways to help move projects forward.
The exchange closed with the senator thanking the secretary for the commitment and indicating staff would coordinate post-hearing follow-up.
