PG&E’s July 2025 filing to the official Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) docket is an important milestone on the way to removing the Eel River dams. The filing also provides a rare opportunity for the public to speak directly to FERC staff about Eel River dam removal through submitting comments.

You don’t need any special knowledge to want a free-flowing Eel River and restored fisheries. FERC needs to hear from all of us – from you – why we care about dam removal, our concerns, and above all, the urgent need for dam removal to happen as soon as possible.

Key points

• The Eel River dams need to be removed as soon as possible to reduce costs to ratepayers, mitigate safety and maintenance issues, and cease on-going ecosystem harms.
• PG&E is making a private business decision to remove these dams because they no longer generate electricity and have been uneconomical for years.
• The two-year dam removal plan PG&E proposes, called Rapid Removal, is the best choice to reduce harms to Eel River fisheries and limit the impacts of dam removal.
• The plan presented in the application is broadly supported as a compromise that resolves longstanding regional tensions.

If you have particular expertise or interest in a specific area, you may be able to provide comments that FERC won’t get elsewhere. The more specific, factual material in the record the better.

Instructions for filing comments with FERC

Electronic comments:

1. Navigate to FERC Online and follow on screen instructions.
2. Check your email for your eComment link.
3. Draft your comments in a Word or text file, so you can copy and paste them into the text box on FERC Online.
4. Search for docket number (P-77-332) and select the blue + symbol
5. Enter your comments in the text box, and select “Send Comment”.

Snail mail comments:

Debbie-Anne A. Reese, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street NE, Room 1A
Washington DC, 20426

Comments are due December 1, 2025 by 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

A note to readers of PG&E’s lengthy filing

Volumes IA and IB are the Surrender Application itself and the Application for Non Project Use of Project Lands. The Project Description, i.e. the detailed dam removal plan, and other key information is in Volume II Surrender Application.

The bulk of the filing is descriptions of the Affected Environment in section 2.2.3, broken into various categories like Water Quality, Botanical Resources, etc. These categories are repeated in section 2.2.4, Application for Surrender of License – Environmental Effects, which describes potential impacts of dam removal to each of these categories. Please make sure if you review any of these detailed sections that you do so both under “Affected Environment” (located in Volume II parts 1 and 2) and “Environmental Effects” (located in Volume II part 2).