Hydropower Burnishes Climate Credentials in Push for Tax Credit

Hydropower producers and some environmentalists are joining forces to push lawmakers to agree to a 30% investment tax credit to upgrade hundreds of aging dams—a policy they say would back hydropower as a next-generation clean energy resource.

So far, lawmakers have come up short in putting hydropower on a “level playing field” with other non-emitting power resources such as wind, solar and nuclear, said Alicia Barton, CEO of FirstLight Power, a Massachusetts-based company operating a dozen hydropower facilities in New England.

The House-passed version of the Build Back Better, the $2 trillion climate and social spending legislation advanced by Democrats, ...