I & I Editorial BoardA leaked Biden administration document is “a strong sign” that the U.S. will consider breaching four Snake River dams to promote salmon populations on the river. Normally, we wouldn’t care, but the push to tear down these (and other) dams exposes the rank hypocrisy of the “climate change” zealots.
Those four dams are hydroelectric stations. In other words, they are sources of clean, carbon-free energy. According to the non-profit NW Energy Coalition, they produce about 1,000 megawatts of power throughout the year, but that can climb to 2,200 MW during peak energy demand.
So, where’s that energy to replace that loss supposed to come from? Coal plants?
Well, that’s what this leaked document was about. The Biden administration says it’s willing to spend $1 billion to find new “clean energy” sources to replace what the dams produce today.
“The draft agreement says the government will help plan and pay for tribes in the Pacific Northwest to develop enough clean energy resources to serve as replacement power for the lower Snake River dams,” reports ABC News.
There’s also $5 million for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to “identify the best ways to meet the region’s energy resource needs and clean energy goals while accounting for breaching of the dams and the loss of their hydropower,” according to the Lewis County Chronicle.
Think about the insanity of all this.
Biden and the rest of the climate-is-falling crowd want to vastly expand the demand for electricity by – among other things – forcing the sales of EVs, banning gas stoves, etc.
At the same time, they want to eliminate fossil fuels as an energy source and somehow replace them all with windmills and solar panels.
That’s a fool’s errand right there. But now they are talking about eliminating a carbon-free energy source to … save fish? And then spend $1 billion to make up for the loss?
Not surprisingly, power companies and regional businesses aren’t happy about this lunatic idea.
According to ABC News:
Utility and business groups Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association called the draft agreement the ‘greatest threat’ for the region in a joint statement released Wednesday, saying dam breaching would hurt the region’s ports and farmers and could raise electricity prices.
‘This proposal turns its back on over three million electricity customers as well as the farming, transportation, navigation, and economic needs of the region,’ the groups wrote.
And even if team Biden was able to replace all the energy lost by removing the dams, it could still increase CO2 emissions because, as ABC News (to its credit) also reports:
Eliminating the dams would also dramatically change the way farmers in Idaho and Washington and Oregon transport their crops, forcing them to rely on truck and rail transportation instead.
Next time some climate zealot starts wringing his hands about the future of the planet, tell them to go to Snake River and chain himself to one of those carbon-free dams.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Liberalism kills more than it saves. Never trust a liberal government.
Keep the dams for hydro power and build fish ladders beside them for the salmon as has been done for other migratory fish in other locations. Best of both!
Fish ladders already exist at these dams. The migrations upstream are affected by many factors, including overfishing, predation by seals, orcas, other fish, etc. In addition, higher rainfall years ultimately produce larger fish runs, while low rainfall years produce lower runs. It’s a multi-faceted issue, but not a complicated one. Just follow the enviro-industrial thirst for money and power and their partnership with the monsters that direct our servile governments, both state and federal.
A modest suggestion: OK build the pollution free, wind & solar plants, hopefully with local materials and labor, of course.
However don’t breach the dams until or unless the new shiny and blow electric generation systems prove they can provide equivalent power 24/7.
I’ll wait for the ribbon cutting dam busting, but I won’t hold my breath.
The tribes and their lawyers have been selling their fish stories for years. They know that the dams provide power and store irrigation water without which farms would become worthless and our power costs will skyrocket. Blackout, loss of flood protection etc. EnvironMENTALISTS…
Liberalism is a disease. All this is not stupid, it’s deliberate. So, do not give them a snarky remark, they are an existential threat.
Breach the dams.
But not until 2.2 Gigawatts, available 24 hrs a day, is there to replace the hydropower.