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Show GREENE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD v. FEDERAL POWER COM'N 423 Cite ns 455 F.2d 412 (1972) of a power crisis "must not be used to create a blackout of environmental consideration in the agency review process." 449 F.2d at 1122. "It is far more consistent with the purposes of the Act to delay operation at a stage where real environmental protection may come about than at a stage where corrective action may be so costly as to be impossible." Id. at 1128. The petitioners inform us also that the Commission has violated its comprehensive planning duties by not requiring PASNY to divulge in its environmental statement any plans it may have with respect to future power projects and transmission lines. PASNY has indicated that this line is part of a plan which may include an additional massive pumped storage hydroelectric project with attendant transmission lines. The Commission responds that its planning responsibility under Section 10(a) of the Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. § 803 (a),25 does not require analysis of future projects which are not presented in license applications. PASNY adopts the benign position that it has disclosed the feasibility studies presently in progress 26 and that the Commission should take them into account in considering the Gilboa-Leeds line. [10] We cannot agree with petitioners that the Commission erred when it did not require PASNY to supplement its impact statement. NEPA places the onus of formulating the statement solely on the Commission, and, unless there is any indication that the Commission's procedures will not allow it to comply with its statutory duty this Court should defer to the Commission's discretion as to the proper information gathering techniques. [11] In an effort to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding on remand, we are constrained to comment on the Commission's planning responsibility. Under Section 10(a) of the Federal Power Act, the Commission cannot issue a license unless the project is "best adapted to a comprehensive plan . . . for the improvement and utilization of water-power development and for other beneficial public uses, including recreational purposes; . . . " In Scenic Hudson I we commented that the Commission's failure to inform itself of Consolidated Edison's future interconnection plans "cannot be reconciled with its planning responsibility under the Federal Power Act." 354 F.2d at 622. And, less than two years later, Justice Douglas writing for the Supreme Court in Udall v. Federal Power Commission, 387 U.S. 428, 87 S.Ct. 1712, 18 L.Ed.2d 869 (1967), made it clear that the Federal Power Act does not command the immediate construction of as many projects as possible and that the determination whether to license any one project "can be made only after an exploration of all issues relevant to the 'public interest,' including future power demand and supply, alternate sources of power, [and] the public interest in preserving reaches of wild rivers and wilderness areas. . . . " Id. at 450, 87 S.Ct. at 1724. Although these decisions may not have established long-range planning requirements,27 they evi- 25. See note 16 supra. 26. PASNY is making a study to determine the physical, environmental and economic feasibility of constructing additional pumped storage facilities downstream from the Blenheim-Gilboa project. 27. The author of this opinion has suggested that: a major share of the blame for the unnecessary delays and ineffectual public planning in the United States may be laid at the doorstep of fragmented government regulation of power development. We sorely lack a federal agency-with sufficient authority, power and purse to choose among the infinite patterns of potential development- responsible for planning and controlling the growth and dispersal of electric generating capacity over a realistically extensive span of space and time. Kaufman, Power for the People-and by the People: Utilities, the Environment and the Public Interest, 46 N.Y.U.L.Rev. S67, 872-873 (1971). |
