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Home / Washington Business - July/August 2005 / President's Message: Judge Walks Away From Electric Ratepayers Again |
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President's Message: Judge Walks Away From Electric Ratepayers Again |
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Written On: July/August 2005 |
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Written By: by Don C. Brunell, AWB President |
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Again this year U.S. District Court Judge James Redden nixed a plan to generate much-needed power on the Columbia and Snake rivers during the lull between major spring and fall salmon runs, even though a big chunk of the electricity sales would be used to further restore salmon habitat.
Earlier this spring, the judge, saying he didn’t want to get involved in micromanaging the river, ordered spillways opened at Lower Granite, Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams on the Snake River and McNary Dam on the Columbia River. But micromanaging is precisely what he did, and his call for a “new spirit of collaboration among federal officials, environmentalists, tribes and others” ought to be recognized for what it really is—a poorly masked charade.
Last year, Redden overturned a plan approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service to reroute water from the spillways of Ice Harbor, John Day, Dalles and Bonneville dams to the penstocks to generate more electricity.
Same Story, Different Year
In 2004, Redden said he didn’t want anyone to think that he ignored the region’s electric ratepayers when he ruled the government must continue its summer spill programs rather than generate more electricity. But what he really did was choose fish over working families, conveniently ignoring other critical factors which are depleting salmon runs.
For example, why hasn’t Redden addressed the problem of Caspian terns, which migrated to the lower Columbia to nest on an island created by the mudflows from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. They feast on young salmon migrating to the ocean.
The conflicts arose when federal agencies, after exhaustive studies costing electric ratepayers billions, moved to cut short the release of water over dam spillways, but Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (a proponent of removing the four lower Snake River dams), tribes and environmental groups sued to stop the plan.
This year’s plan would have saved ratepayers $67 million during July and August. Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire said Redden’s decision means a $1 a month increase in Seattle City Light residential power bills. Last year extra power sales would have cut charges to Northwest households and commercial ratepayers by $18 million to $28 million.
Power Proceeds Would Improve Habitat
In 2004, NMFS studies showed changes in dam operations may kill 100 to 900 young Snake River fall chinook heading down river. But the agency said the release of additional water from Brownlee reservoir, for example, would increase survival of the threatened stock by 700 to 1,100 fish. The same types of tradeoffs would have occured this year if Redden hadn’t stepped in.
While his decision may seem trivial, what really is at stake is President George W. Bush’s 10-year, $6 billion plan to make federal dams on the rivers more salmon friendly. Rather than breaching Snake River dams, the President wants to install technology to ease fish passage over the dams. It includes barging and trucking young salmon around the impoundments, a scheme which galls dam removal activists even though it is proven alternative for reducing juvenile salmon mortality.
The bottom line is the 9th U.S. Circuit Court can overturn Redden’s decision, but it may ultimately take Congress and the northwest governors to step in and take charge. They must look at all of the factors influencing salmon and steelhead runs, not just the dams or forests or farming practices.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gregoire and the governors of Montana and Idaho should take Kulongoski to the woodshed and educate him on the needs of working families and on common sense.
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