U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) last week denounced a recent proposal to breach the Lower Snake River Dams to restore salmon populations and introduced a resolution to protect and expand the nation’s use of hydropower.
“These dams are the beating heart of eastern Washington and provide the entire Pacific Northwest with clean, renewable, reliable, and affordable energy,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers said on Feb. 5. “Spending more than $33 billion to breach them — with no guarantee that doing so will restore salmon populations — is a drastic, fiscally irresponsible leap to take.”
A $33 billion proposal released on Feb. 6 by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) would breach four dams on the lower Snake River, replace the lost hydroelectric energy with other sources, and ensure irrigation and livestock protection for agriculture industries affected by the breaches.
“Proposals that include breaching the Lower Snake River Dams in the name of protecting salmon populations are flawed and fail to account for the sweeping impacts that would be felt across the region,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers. “With greater than 95 percent passage, these dams are not the greatest threat to fish survival. Our oceans are, coupled with predation and habitat loss.”
The congresswoman said the nation instead needs “to focus on solutions that will get results, like cleaning up Puget Sound and restoring salmon runs there.”
Also on Feb. 5, Rep. McMorris Rodgers sponsored a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that hydropower is an essential renewable resource and the United States should protect existing hydropower resources, according to the text of the resolution.
Rep. McMorris Rodgers introduced House Concurrent Resolution 15 with four GOP cosponsors, including U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Simpson.
“The hydropower developed in the Pacific Northwest benefits every resident, family and business in our region, and it’s an important component of the all-of-the-above energy strategy that will ensure the United States maintains energy independence and leadership on the global stage,” the members said in a joint statement. “The clean, renewable power generated by the dams along the Columbia and Snake Rivers supplies half of the Pacific Northwest’s energy and is critical for a reliable power grid. Without it, life as we know it in our region would cease to exist.”