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' In August 1990, the Commission announced that the license applications had <br />been accepted for processing. The Service, by letter dated September 18, <br />1990, provided a list of federally listed species and designated critical <br />' habitat which may occur in the project area of influence (U.S. Fish and <br />Wildlife Service 1990a). The Service also requested that the information <br />' data to be provided to the Service include a flow analysis with both the <br />proposed project operations and a simulated "run -of- the - river" scenario (i <br />section 7 baseline) in order to evaluate the effects of relicensing on <br />' federally listed species and designated critical habitat. <br />I <br />and <br />e., <br />On November 15, 1990, the Department submitted its recommendations to the <br />Commission under section 10(j) of the Power Act and section 2 of the <br />Coordination Act (U.S. Department of the Interior 1990a). The Department's <br />recommendations incorporated technical information produced by the interagency <br />' Platte River Management Joint Study (Joint Study) and focused on the need for: <br />(a) instream flows; (b) rehabilitation of riverine /sandbar habitat; (c) <br />rehabilitation of wet meadow habitat; and (d) improved water management in the <br />' system. The Department's recommendations included the Service's <br />recommendations for conditions needed to protect and conserve federally listed <br />species. <br />In January 1992, the Commission published a Draft Environmental Impact <br />' Statement (DEIS) for review (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 1992a). In <br />June 1992 the Department provided comments to the Commission and noted that <br />the DEIS was seriously flawed and requested that a revised DEIS ( RDEIS) be <br />' prepared (U.S. Department of the Interior 1992). The Department noted that <br />the DEIS did not: (a) use a proper baseline; (b) provide adequate protection <br />for threatened and endangered species; (c) include and analyze appropriate <br />' alternatives; (d) describe impacts to species of fish and wildlife other than <br />endangered species; (e) include reliable outputs from operational models; and <br />(f) provide adequate supporting information. Because of these concerns, the <br />' Department indicated that it may refer the relicensing action to the Council <br />on Environmental Quality (CEQ) under 40 CFR § 1504. <br />In October 1992, the Governor of Nebraska submitted the State of Nebraska's <br />"Environmental Account" proposal (Nebraska Plan) to the Commission for <br />' inclusion as an alternative in the RDEIS (State of Nebraska 1992). In <br />November 1992, the Commission released a Scoping Document for the RDEIS <br />(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 19924) and later conducted scoping <br />' meetings. In February 1993, the Department submitted the Service's comments <br />on the Scoping Document and Workshop Report (U.S. Department of the Interior <br />1993a). The Commission released a RDEIS in April 1994 (Federal Energy <br />' Regulatory Commission 1994a). <br />