Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environment, Economics and Politics
Reader 1
Bowman Cutter
Reader 2
Nayana Bose
Rights Information
© 2019 Claire C Wendle
Abstract
Private hydropower operations across the United States are utilizing a public resource, rivers, for power production benefits. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates river use through a relicensing procedure that occurs every thirty or fifty years through a cost-benefit analysis framework to determine the best public use of the river. This thesis explores the structure of the current cost-benefit analysis and the effects of timing, public participation and valuation of ecosystem services in the final relicensing decision, and recommends the use of a social cost-benefit framework to distribute the natural resource benefits rivers provide more equally and give fair weight to ecosystem benefits in a market-driven process.
Recommended Citation
Wendle, Claire, "Rights to the River: Implementing A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis in the United States Hydropower Relicensing Process" (2019). Scripps Senior Theses. 1395.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1395
