A new effort is now being made to establish a National Energy Policy, but these proposals too do not address the problems discussed here relating to national planning for the production and distribution of electric power. Hydropower is a very desirable form of energy production if certain environmental problems, primarily related to effects on fisheries, can be resolved. But the overall problems of how energy is to be produced must be decided in a larger context. Leaving those decisions to the private marketplace, as is most often proposed, does not seem appropriate in today's global society. There are adequate mechanisms in place and adequate objectives and tools to create and implement a national energy policy, including one for hydropower development, but no agency has been created or authorized to create appropriate standards and goals to take into account all relevant concerns and then arrive at or recommend a rational decision.
Most projects are still the result of ad hoc policies.
There is far too little comprehensive planning, and far too little in the way of guidance as to how agencies should evaluate proposed projects. Given the national dislike for centralized control over any activity, it may be unrealistic to expect that a true national policy can be developed. It is not too much to expect, however, that Congress could attempt to define a set of priorities among all the competing directives it has issued in different laws and to establish some administrative method of resolving those differences. Today, by default, the courts define the priorities one case at a time and based on the application of particular laws. They are not empowered, nor should they be, to address these issues from a programmatic or comprehensive standpoint.