The wait is over: 18 months after the Integrated Licensing Process became the new default process obtaining a hydropower license, FERC has published its first review of the ILP's effectiveness. The document, Ideas for Implementing and Participating in the Integrated Licensing Process (ILP) is available for download from FERC's ILP effectiveness homepage. FERC has also put together a summary of comments that it received on the subject. You can read a copy of the Coalition's comments here.

This document was informed by a series of conference calls and regional workshops held in the spring and early summer of 2005. Coalition members and staff participated in several of these calls and workshops, including the final workshop held in DC on June 23, 2005. We're pleased that FERC is looking closely at the ILP while it is still new, and hope that they will continue to do so as stakeholders learn more about the process.

So far, the review is limited to the steps of the process that lead up to the issuance of a study plan, because only one of the early licensings to use the ILP had gotten beyond that point. We were sorry to see that it did not take a look at the study dispute resolution resolution process, but it does appear that FERC staff are tracking these disputes.