Alcoa’s Transfer of N.C. Hydropower Plant Upheld by D.C. Cir.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission properly permitted Alcoa Power Generating Inc. to transfer its license for a hydropower project on North Carolina’s Yadkin River when the company decided to shutter its Badin Works industrial plant, a federal appeals court ruled.

North Carolina failed to show Alcoa played “bait-and-switch” throughout the years-long relicensing process by misrepresenting its intent to keep Badin Works open after FERC renewed its license for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, the U.S. Court for Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Jan. 18.

The project was originally licensed in 1958 and Alcoa once employed 1,000 or so ...