Feasibility of Transferring Certain FERC Regional Office Activities to the Corps of Engineers

Gao ID: 124434 June 8, 1984

GAO examined the advantages and disadvantages of transferring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) regional functions of hydroelectric project inspection and monitoring to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has a much larger field operation, and consolidating the remaining FERC regional functions at FERC headquarters.

Regional offices of FERC and division and district offices of the Corps perform inspections of hydroelectric projects to ensure that they are constructed, maintained, and operated so as not to pose a threat to downstream areas. GAO found that the data available at FERC headquarters and regional offices were inadequate to draw valid conclusions from concerning the cost effectiveness of transferring the FERC regional activities to the Corps and FERC headquarters. FERC and the electric utility industry were opposed to the transfer of the FERC hydroelectric project inspection and monitoring activities, while the Corps favored it. GAO did not perform a detailed analysis of the industry and FERC concerns to determine their validity. Because the necessary data were not available to calculate the potential dollar savings, GAO was unable to determine whether industry and FERC concerns were significant enough to outweigh the potential savings of such a transfer.



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