Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission

Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, 354 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965) is a United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals case in which a public group of citizens, the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference, organized and initiated legal action after the Federal Power Commission approved plans for Consolidated Edison to construct a power plant on Storm King Mountain, New York. The federal regulatory agency had denied that the environmental group could bring action, but the court disagreed, ruling that Scenic Hudson had legal standing because of their "special interest in aesthetic, conservational, and recreational aspects" of the mountain. This was the first decision of a court to grant standing on such terms, and established a precedent to allow similar public-based environmental groups to engage in legal processes. As Justice Hays stated, "the cost of a project is only one of several factors to be considered" in addition to "the preservation of natural beauty and national historic sites" as a basic concern. This 1965 ruling helped to establish the legitimacy of environmental issues and paved the way for lawyers and the courts to play a significant role in all manner of land-use and environmental battles. Background This case is part of a 17-year (1963–1981) dispute. In September, 1962, Consolidated Edison announced plans to build the country's largest pumped-storage, 2,000-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power plant on Storm King Mountain at a cost of $234 million. The proposed project also required that Con Edison buy about three hundred acres of the Black Rock Forest owned by Harvard University, which was unwilling to sell. In response to the proposal, by November 1963 citizens had formed the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference to provide a stronger unified voice against the project. Despite its opposition, the Federal Power Commission granted Consolidated Edison the right to proceed. The Commission's decision was immediately appealed and the matter was sent to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The timeline below provides a more thorough context of the different cases and significant decisions.