(OIL PRICE) – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted Native American tribes more power to block hydropower projects on their lands if they oppose the plans.
FERC has previously applied the general policy of granting permits to planned hydropower projects even where Tribes have raised issues over the impact of such projects, which require enormous amounts of water in areas such as the Southwest, where water is scarce.
However, FERC denied last week preliminary permit applications for seven pumped storage hydroelectric projects proposed on Navajo Nation land, and said it has recently revised the “general policy of granting permits.”
