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Hydropower policy in the United States includes all the laws, rules, regulations, programs and agencies that govern the national hydroelectric industry. Federal policy concerning waterpower developed over considerable time before the advent of electricity, and at times, has changed considerably, as water uses, available scientific technologies and considerations developed to the present day; over this period the priority of different, pre-existing and competing uses for water, flowing water and its energy, as well as for the water itself and competing available sources of energy have changed. Increased population and commercial demands spurred this developmental growth and many of the changes since, and these affect the technology's use today. Federal policies regarding the national water resources, within which hydropower exists, were already well-established long before modern electricity was known to exist; as such, previous uses and decisions, as well as government policies and agencies affected how hydropower was later developed. Chief among federal agencies was the involvement of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). While federal policy regarding interstate waters dates to the constitutional landmark decision under the Commerce Clause in 1824, its implementation was initially limited to development of navigation and its safety, among other demands for such internal improvements. Shortly thereafter, with the General Survey Act the USACE took the lead. By the 1850s and increasingly later, flood control was added to the demands for improvements, as well as recognizing the need to investigate and better understand the science involved. Much of these early improvements were legislated and authorized by rivers and harbors legislation and conducted by the Corps. With the advent of the progressive era before the turn of the 20th century, new, different and often competing technical demands were being made for water resource improvements, including irrigation in the western states and demand for the recently developed electric power in all states. Conservation and better utilization of natural resources in a historic relationship, first became topics of concern and consideration for policy at this time. The hydroelectric industry has been and remains affected by the regulations and interests of various agencies and organizations. Since 1977 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been the main regulatory body for the industry. Currently FERC is responsible for licensing new project construction, as well as the re-licensing, and operations oversight of existing projects, including dam safety inspections and environmental monitoring. Environmental concerns and implications are evaluated by both federal and state Natural Resource agencies, Indian tribes, and state water quality agencies. Examples of such federal agencies include, but are not limited to, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the Department of Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Department of the Interior. The National Hydropower Association is a hydropower trade organization which lobbies for policies which favor the industry. Advancement of hydroelectric technology is accomplished through research and development programs, such as the Department of Energy's Hydropower Program. The use of hydroelectric technology is promoted by Renewable portfolio standards and various financial incentives. These financial incentives include: Renewable energy Production Tax Credits (PTC), loan Guarantees, Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB), and Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds (QECB). ==Background and context== Water is required for all life, but since ancient times, mankind has also employed this natural resource for other specifically human productive uses. Millennia ago man learned to navigate on water, learned to dam and divert it for irrigation and build aqueducts and canals to carry it where possible, and learned to convert the power of moving water to mechanical energy to perform work.〔(History of Hydropower )〕 They also employed basic wind and solar renewable energy for transport and heating. It took time before ancient cities learned to separate water supply from effluent and develop independent drainage for wastewater.〔For example, (Water and Wastewater Systems in Imperial Rome ).〕 Early on, in the United States, the federal government established policy on interstate navigation, with federal policy on flood control and irrigation developing later as outgrowths. Only since the age of electricity, a century ago, have larger scientific and policy concerns been expressed about conservation and the need to view water resources in a larger frame of natural resources generally, of public health aspects of water and its pollution. Federal planning on a broader policy basis began concurrently with the development of the country's hydropower potential.〔Charles K. McFarland, (The Federal Government and Water Power, 1901-1913: A Legislative Study in the Nascence of Regulation ), ''Land Economics'', pp 441-452 Vol. 42, No. 4, November, 1966〕〔''The Nation and its Water Resources'', Leonard B. Dworsky, Division of Water Supply and Pollution Control, United States Public Health Service, 167pp., 1962. (2005 Edition ) at Docstoc.com〕 Since WWII, federal hydropower policy has become entwined within these and other broader policy concerns and it has been affected by them considerably; changes in hydropower policy have also attempted to address severe new challenges caused by the level of national energy consumption and questions of energy more globally defined, including its competing types, sources, as well as the sources and safety of competing fuels. Upon its discovery European colonial and mercantile powers utilized America's great river systems to provided exploration by the navigation of its vast inland rivers. Over time these waterways became the transportation and trading routes which yielded the new world's vast riches, and soon became the object of rivalry between competing colonial powers. With this heritage and its independence the fledgling government wasted little time in establishing control over its borders, with trade in mind. With the country's vast unsettled western frontier, early policy and precedent was set in 1787 in the Northwest Ordinance, which established free usage of its interior waterways and connecting portages;〔The Northwest Ordinance "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other States that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor."〕 these conditions would be included in the lands of Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the country's size, and later territorial acquisitions. The many rivers also provided the basis for advantageous settlement because water power was available to build water wheels and develop mills, generally where navigation was impeded by rapids or waterfalls and flow sufficient.〔 Following the court decision and passage of the General Survey Act, subsequent rivers and harbors acts were passed throughout the 19th century generally, except during financial crises and the Civil War;〔Stephen Minicucci, (Internal Improvements and the Union, 1790–1860 ), Studies in American Political Development (2004), 18: p.160-185, (2004), Cambridge University Press, 〕 after the war, internal improvement spending rose considerably, particularly in the eastern states with abundant water resources.〔 During this time, new demands for flood control improvements began appearing, along with a new source of power from steam. By the 1830s, commercial success of steamboat navigation and transport became widespread and pushed demand for more river and canal improvements. Somewhat later, steam power was mated with wheels needing to be steered, and railroads developed to become another type of internal improvement. With much the same technical expertise as needed for earlier roads and canals, the Corps was assigned involvement; they also initiated scientific studies of rivers and their engineered improvements and structures. As railroads expanded rapidly farther inland unchallenged, competition developed along previously existing or developed arterial routes, between older and slower navigation systems and the newer and faster railroads. One result over time was their acquisition and closing of existing canals, another result was the development of monopolistic and anti-competitive practices. Where railroads were not so directly involved, the decline in canal traffic developed alternative uses for the water power contained behind these dams and former locks. While these closed canal facilities could not be moved, their water power could be, in a fashion; in some locations the dammed water was otherwise piped through a penstock to multiple nearby locations lower downstream, to provide mechanical hydropower from increasingly more efficient water turbines. With advancements in steam engine design, stationary units developed to supply power for mills at off-river locations, if a fuel source was available; over time fuels to produce power changed from burning biomass to burning fossil fuels, and the steam donkey could provide power in remote locations. Over this time lighting progressed from candles to whale oil or kerosene and gas if available. Improving on earlier and less efficient water turbine designs in one historic mill town, the new Francis turbine was created in 1848, using scientific principles and testing methods producing a turbine design of 90% efficiency. More importantly, Francis's mathematical and graphical calculation methods advanced turbine design and engineering and allowed confident design of high efficiency turbines to exactly match a site's flow conditions. In the 1870s and deriving from uses in the mining industry, the high efficiency Pelton wheel impulse turbine was developed to use hydropower under very different flow and pressure conditions. Advances in dam design also progressed, with the completion of Old Aswan Dam being considered a milestone of engineering over nature. At the time of its construction, nothing of such scale had ever been attempted: it also became one of the first dams to be limited by conservation considerations.〔Frederic Courtland Penfield, Harnessing the Nile, Century Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 4 (February 1899).Here, the object of conservation was Philae Temple〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hydropower policy in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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