The Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC) is an association of over 130 national, regional, and local membership groups dedicated to enhance the quality of rivers controlled by hydropower projects, ensure public access to these lands and waters, and reform the licensing process to ensure public participation and to improve the quality of the resulting decisions. These groups represent more than 1.5 million people across the country.

The HRC was formed in April 1992. Our member groups have subsequently intervened in over 75% of licensing proceedings. These groups are signatories to more than 200 comprehensive settlement agreements which, as the basis for new licenses, have restored water quality, fisheries, and recreational access to thousands of miles of rivers and streams. The HRC negotiated with the National Hydropower Association, federal and state agencies, and other opinion leaders in hydropower regulation to develop the concepts FERC adopted as the Integrated Licensing Process (ILP) in 2003. The ILP, which will become the standard process in July 2005, is designed to ban the black box approach customary in so many other federal and state regulatory programs. The ILP requires effective coordination between FERC and other regulatory agencies in each licensing proceeding (“the right hand will know what the left is doing”), and it provides for transparency and reliability in the schedule (“the train will run on time”), for the first time in the 70-year history of the Federal Power Act.

The HRC is governed by a Steering Committee of fourteen groups. Our policies for hydropower regulation, press releases on significant developments, and information on our member groups, are published at http://www.hydroreform.org/.

1 Introduction

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1.2 Toolkit Organization