The Pacific Northwest has a power problem. We have plenty of electricity, sure, and our electric bills are considerably lower than they would be anywhere else in the country. Our leaders call themselves champions of sustainable energy and the region’s last coal plants were shut down in
2020, so at face value, it looks an awful lot like we’ve got our power situation figured out.
And yet, I don’t think we are role models for anyone.
With what we know about river ecosystems and fish migrations today, we don’t get to pat ourselves on the back for relying on hydroelectric dams. What many have long considered “the lesser of two evils” has wreaked havoc on salmon and lamprey populations for decades and fundamentally changed our river ecosystems.
Dam breaching in the PNW is always going to be controversial, but I believe it is essential. While we currently depend on our eight Columbia and Snake River dams for hydropower, the time has come to re-evaluate that relationship.
I am excited by a plan announced by Idaho Representative Mike Simpson, which proposes to breach the four Lower Snake River dams. It’s bold, it’s detailed and it’s exactly the kind of problem-solving we need our national and state leaders to be putting forward to address the climate crisis. At the center of the multi-state and industry-spanning plan is a love of Idaho’s salmon and a desire to do everything we can to prevent their untimely extinction.
I don’t love every detail of Representative Simpson’s plan: the 35-year ban on lawsuits against federal projects on the Columbia River and the room in the proposal for nuclear power development worries me. But I don’t have to love everything about the plan to support it, and I believe that it would benefit Idaho and the entire PNW greatly to have this conversation in Congress.
Environmentalists have spent too much time-fighting in court to win only small conservation victories that are ultimately not enough to save our river ecosystems. This plan offers too much to be dismissed on a partisan basis, or to be thrown out with the bathwater before it can be drafted as actual legislation.
It makes me hopeful that this region’s diverse stakeholders are discussing and considering this plan’s compromises in good faith, and to see how many people genuinely care about saving Idaho’s salmon. This is our chance to innovate and build a future we’re proud of while securing a future for one of the PNW’s most iconic and beloved species.
It will take all of us putting our heads together to make this plan a reality, from tribe and state officials to conservation organizations and universities across the Columbia River Basin. It will take time, effort and at least 33.5 billion dollars to grow this conversation into a Snake River recovery. It will take a lot from our PNW community and require us to make some changes to our way of life, but it will be worth it. Nothing short of our Idaho environmental legacy is at stake.
Beth Hoots can be reached at [email protected].