Members of Congress recently grilled Biden administration officials over the decision to breach four dams on the lower Snake River in the Columbia River Basin.
In a Jan. 30 House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee hearing, GOP lawmakers questioned the administration’s agreement between four Tribes to breach the dams, which generate hydropower and play a large role in moving barges full of wheat exports.
The White House announced the agreement last December, assuring that removing the dams would restore wild salmon populations, expand clean energy production and provide stability for communities in the Columbia River System. The agreement was made between the administration and Oregon, Washington, the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama tribes and environmental groups.
“Today’s agreement, when combined with other funding that the Administration is anticipated to deliver to the region, will bring more than $1 billion in new Federal investments to wild fish restoration in the Columbia River Basin over the next decade and facilitate the build-out of at least one to three gigawatts of Tribally sponsored clean energy production,” a Dec. 14 White House statement read.
Hearing
House Energy and Commerce Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC-03) opened the hearing by contending the agreement was made without any input from electric providers. He introduced one of the hearing panelists, Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson, who said the agreement would jeopardize electricity reliability and increase the cost for millions of people in the Pacific Northwest.
Duncan continued that he was concerned with the precedent the agreement could set, as hydropower is the nation’s largest source of renewable energy.
“Too many times we have seen this administration kowtow to radical environmentalists, who rely on political objectives instead of science and facts,” Duncan concluded in his remarks. “This creates policy that undercuts energy affordability and reliability and ends up having a negative environmental impact.”
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-05) opened her remarks by noting the potential implications for agriculture in the region.
“This critical infrastructure helped transform our region into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world,” McMorris Rodgers said. “It serves as a super-marine highway for farmers to ship their products all across America, while keeping thousands of trucks off the road every year.”
She continued that the dams have lowered energy costs and made the Pacific Northwest a leader in reducing carbon emissions.
She also claimed the agreement was made on faulty science, citing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report.
“This agreement relies almost entirely on an inconclusive NOAA report which the administration acknowledges may not save the salmon,” she said. “It also fails to acknowledge our historic investments that have made the dams nearly transparent to fish.”
Casey Chumrau, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, was one of the panelists who testified at the hearing.
“One loaded covered hopper barge carries over 58,000 bushels of wheat. It would take 113,187 semi-trailers each year carrying 910 bushels of wheat to replace the 103 million bushels shipped on the Snake River via barge annually,” Chumrau wrote in her written testimony.
She continued that dams and salmon can—and do—coexist, and that any work forward should off the fish passages instead of eliminating them.
“The opportunities to ensure salmon populations continue to grow do not have to come at the cost of destroying the integrity of the Columbia Snake River System and the ability for farmers to produce a safe and abundant food supply,” Chumrau finished.
In support of the agreement, Janet Coit, NOAA assistant administrator, testified that NOAA has a commitment to follow federal statutes and the government has commitments to tribal nations.
“Certain Tribes not only have reserved treaty rights to fish, but an expectation that there would always be fish to harvest and courts have recognized their rights to a fair share of the harvest,” she wrote in her testimony.
Coit continued that while the continued operations of the Columbia River System dams are likely to avoid jeopardizing fish species when paired with conservation measures, Endangered Species Act listed salmon and steelhead generally remain at a high risk of extinction across the basin.
“The planned actions supported by multiple Federal departments and agencies will protect and improve the environment and economy of the Columbia Basin and its resources,” Coit said. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
