Hydropower licensing processes include consulting with stakeholders, identifying environmental issues through scoping, and preparing environmental documents such as Environmental Assessments or Environmental Impact Statements. Licenses are issued by Commission order. In the traditional licensing process, environmental issues are identified through scoping after the license application has been filed with the Commission. The traditional licensing process has two parts:

1. Applicants Pre-Filing Process
2. FERC Application Process


An alternative licensing process permits scoping of environmental issues to occur prior to the application being filed with the Commission. The applicant files a preliminary draft environmental review document along with the application for license. The alternative licensing process has two parts:


3. Applicants Pre-Filing Process
4. FERC Application Process

Note: In both the traditional and alternative licensing process, Commission staff oversees compliance with license conditions. Commission engineers also