Murkowski targets federal conditions on Southeast's hydropower licenses

The dams that keep the lights on in Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg sit on Tongass National Forest land — and Sen. Lisa Murkowski wants to limit what federal land managers can demand when those licenses come up for renewal.

Murkowski co-sponsored the Hydropower Licensing Affordability Act this week with Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and Jim Risch of Idaho. It would bar agencies such as the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service from attaching conditions to a federal hydropower license unless they are, as Daines put it, "directly related to a project."

The Southeast Alaska Power Agency, owned by those three towns, filed this spring to start relicensing Tyee Lake, the project 40 miles southeast of Wrangell that supplies Wrangell and Petersburg. Its Swan Lake project near Ketchikan expires in 2030. Both occupy Tongass land administered by the Forest Service, so the agency's conditioning authority applies directly to both.

What hangs on it is diesel. When the reservoirs run low in a dry year, the three communities fall back on generators — costlier and dirtier power that has pushed Ketchikan up against air quality limits.

All five FERC commissioners told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday that hydropower licensing should be simplified. Chairman Laura Swett said she pushes back on unrelated conditions when she finds them, and that the commission is spending more time on hydropower than at any point in its history.