Guest Essay: BPA’s approach to salmon deserves credit, not criticism (Seattle Times, WA - Via The Energy News Feed)

Aug. 21, 2025 at 3:31 pm

The Bonneville Power Administration’s leadership and investment in salmon recovery have helped the Columbia Basin achieve important gains, despite significant environmental pressures, writes the author.

By Kurt Miller

Special to The Seattle Times

A recent Seattle Times op-ed (“BPA plan puts progress on clean energy and salmon recovery at risk,” Aug. 7) misrepresents the Bonneville Power Administration’s contribution to salmon recovery, suggesting that BPA’s proposal to move away from a decades-old goal of 5 million returning salmon signals a lack of commitment.

The opposite is true.

No other energy provider in the nation has invested more in restoring fish runs. Since the mid-1980s, BPA’s ratepayers have funded over $8 billion in habitat restoration, fish passage improvements, hatcheries and research — an unmatched commitment to the environment and the region’s communities. Much of this investment has gone directly to tribally led restoration and enhancement projects, providing long-term funding while creating stable jobs and economic opportunities in Northwest tribal communities.

Most recently, BPA committed $200 million over 20 years to help fund the study of the reintroduction of salmon above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams. This important work, led by the Upper Columbia United Tribes, represents the type of partnership that the region should look toward — one that helps salmon without harming critical hydropower production.

When the Northwest Power and Conservation Council set its goal of 5 million returning adult salmon and steelhead in the late 1980s, it wasn’t based on rigorous ecosystem modeling, climate science or feasibility analysis. It was essentially an aspirational doubling of returns at the time; easy to remember, but never intended as a realistic, science-based benchmark.

In 2025, continuing to use that figure as the main yardstick ignores the realities fish face today: warming temperatures, changing ocean conditions, shrinking estuaries, and surging populations of marine predators, like seals and sea lions. The council’s recovery targets must be updated to reflect current conditions — not those of 40 years ago. BPA is right to push for metrics rooted in science and adapted to modern environmental challenges so that we can develop a realistic path forward.

Critics often downplay the fact that salmon returns in the Columbia Basin have tripled since the first federal dam was built, arguing it “doesn’t tell the whole story.” While no single statistic can paint an entire picture, the comparison speaks volumes: In other major West Coast rivers without large-scale hydropower — such as Alaska’s Yukon or British Columbia’s Fraser — salmon runs have plummeted over the past 50 years. Against that backdrop of decline, the Columbia Basin’s improved returns are not just a statistic, they’re a significant achievement born of decades of targeted investment and innovation. That’s not the record of an agency walking away from its responsibility — it’s the record of one carrying it out with persistence and scale.

Hydroelectric dams do more than provide revenue for salmon enhancement projects — they are a foundation of the Northwest’s energy security. They generate flexible, carbon-free electricity that keeps the lights on when wind and solar can’t. In terms of reliability, it takes roughly 5 megawatts of wind, solar and batteries to replace one megawatt of hydropower capacity, which means that existing hydropower projects are the most cost-effective sources of energy we have by far.

In Washington, where over one-third of residents rely on some form of government assistance to make ends meet, losing hydropower capacity would mean steeper electric bills and greater blackout risks. As U.S. Sen. Patty Murray concluded in 2022, the region’s dams are irreplaceable, given current technologies, for keeping energy reliable, clean and affordable.

The Northwest Power Act rightly directs BPA to protect fish while maintaining an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply. Achieving that balance requires recovery goals grounded in science, responsive to changing conditions, and focused on strategies with the highest biological payoff.

BPA’s leadership and investment in salmon recovery have helped the Columbia Basin achieve important gains, despite significant environmental pressures. With realistic, science-based goals, the region can build on this progress while continuing to address the work that remains.

Kurt Miller: is the CEO & Executive Director of the Northwest Public Power Association, representing over 150 not-for-profit electric utilities across 10 Western states and British Columbia.

U.S. DOE Secretary Expresses Support for the Lower Snake River Dams (Northwest Public Power Association)

(WASHINGTPN, DC) - - In response to a question from Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) at a May 7 budget hearing, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he is “passionately in support” of keeping the lower Snake River dams in place.

“They’ve been tremendous assets for decades,” Wright said of the dams. “We should not spend money to go backwards to reduce our energy generating capacity.”

Wright said hydropower facilities will become more important resources as demand for electricity in the United States rises.

“When America was bold, we built a number of great dams,” Wright said. “They’ve been critical to the economic prosperity of our country, very early suppliers of firm, reliable power … they provide what I call high-value electricity, which means it’s there when you need it and you can hold it back when you don’t need it. They’re very valuable assets.”

NWPPA has long supported keeping the lower Snake River dams, which are a critical power resource in the Northwest.

“Public power utilities across the region deeply appreciate Secretary Wright’s strong endorsement of the lower Snake River dams,” said NWPPA CEO and Executive Director Kurt Miller. “His remarks affirm the essential role these projects play in keeping electricity reliable and affordable for the communities we serve. As demand for clean, firm power continues to grow, the lower Snake River dams remain a cornerstone of our region’s energy infrastructure and a vital asset for not-for-profit, community-owned utilities.”

BPA Safe From Additional Staffing Cuts, DOE’s Wright Tells House Committee (Northwest Public Power Association)

(WASHINGTON, DC) - - At a May 7 budget hearing Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development that there will be no more staffing cuts at the Bonneville Power Administration.

“We [DOE] have been specific in saying we can’t have people leave from Bonneville Power and the other power-marketing agencies, because I don’t think we have room to reduce head count there anymore,” Wright said.

BPA lost 194 employees in the Trump administration’s first round of deferred resignations, and 162 in the second buyout offer, a considerable loss to its workforce of around 3,000. Federal power marketing administrations have struggled to fill key roles, especially in control centers and line crews. NWPPA supports ensuring healthy staffing levels at the power marketing administrations, which s critical for ensuring that safe, reliable, and affordable power is available in the Northwest.

“We sincerely appreciate Secretary Wright’s commitment to maintaining healthy staffing levels at both BPA and WAPA—two agencies that play a vital role in supporting community-owned electric utilities across the West,” said NWPPA CEO and Executive Director Kurt Miller. “As a critical next step, we urge the U.S. Department of Energy to lift the hiring freeze at the power marketing administrations to ensure they have the workforce needed to meet today’s energy challenges.”

Update on WAPA’s Project Work & Workforce Capacity from the Administrator & Chief Executive Officer (Western Area Power Administration)

 

Dear Customers and Partners,

I want to personally thank you for your continued support and partnership as WAPA navigates one of the most challenging periods in our history. I also want to provide you with a transparent update on where we stand and how we are adapting to ensure we continue delivering the reliable, cost-based power you depend on.

Over the past several months, WAPA has experienced significant shifts in workforce capacity. Longstanding vacancies, combined with impacts from the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Energy Deferred Resignation Programs, attrition, and an ongoing hiring freeze, have significantly strained our ability to deliver the full volume of work we have traditionally maintained.

Even before these changes, we recognized that our infrastructure workload was growing beyond our existing resources. In 2024, WAPA leadership began working to better understand the nature and volume of the necessary and requested infrastructure projects across the enterprise in the next five years. From this effort, we identified over 200 projects (and growing) across a spectrum of needs including replacing aging infrastructure, meeting our tariff obligations, and being responsive to customer needs. We recognized that we would need to coordinate and plan in new ways to ensure we could meet this work in the most timely and effective way possible. The reduction in workforce capacity this year has further magnified this need. Recently, we iterated this internal planning work to focus particularly on projects through the end of CY 2025 that require and traditionally rely on shared services support from WAPA Headquarters, including (but not limited to) procurement, engineering, lands, and environmental compliance – to ensure that critical projects continue moving forward efficiently and most importantly, safely.

The sequencing of projects is not a temporary measure. It reflects a strategic shift in how WAPA manages workload to match available workforce capacity, prioritize essential needs, and safeguard system reliability. It also reinforces our commitment to being good stewards of the resources entrusted to us – ensuring we do not overextend our teams in ways that could compromise safety or operational continuity.

To be clear, while sequencing guides how certain projects are staged through the needed shared services, other work continues as well. Projects not identified in the current sequence are not being canceled. Rather, they are being scheduled with consideration for available resources and the evolving demands on our workforce.

Throughout all of this, safety remains WAPA’s first priority. We have reinforced to all employees the importance of maintaining situational awareness, exercising stop-work authority when necessary, and taking the time needed to perform work safely and thoughtfully. We understand that a strained workforce can heighten risks, and we are committed to ensuring that safety remains at the center of every decision we make.

We also deeply value the trust you place in WAPA. Your support, collaboration, and flexibility over the past few months have been critical in helping us navigate these unprecedented challenges. We will continue communicating openly and frequently as we move forward, and we remain committed to working in partnership with you to achieve our shared goals.

Thank you again for your trust and understanding. I want to share my personal gratitude to the many customers who have reached out to inquire about our employees and expressed your support.

If you have any questions or would like additional information about project sequencing, workforce impacts, or near-term priorities, your regional leadership team and I are available to assist.

With appreciation,

Tracey A. LeBeau

Administrator and Chief Executive Officer

U.S. Department of Energy, Western Area Power Administration

NOAA Staffing Cuts Threaten Years of Salmon Harvests (NY Times)

In Washington, where salmon is a multibillion dollar industry, government staff terminations and budget freezes may put salmon production at risk.

In Washington State, April is when millions of young Chinook salmon are released from hatcheries, where they started as tiny, pink globes, to swim downstream and rebuild the salmon population. They are part of an ecosystem that affects tribal, commercial, and recreational fishing and are a main source of food for endangered killer whales.

But this year, almost a dozen hatcheries in the Puget Sound region are in limbo because a single employee from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was terminated in February, a casualty of cuts made by billionaire Elon Musk’s advisory group known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

That employee was Krista Finlay and her job at NOAA was to ensure hatcheries complied with the Endangered Species Act before the fish were released into Puget Sound. She was among tens of thousands of federal employees with probationary status who lost their jobs in February. Ms. Finlay, who had worked at NOAA since March 2024 after more than two years as an intern and then fellow, said she feared for the salmon run.

“If I don’t release millions and millions of salmon, there’s less this year and years going forward,” Ms. Finlay said. “If we don’t have salmon returning in 2027 and 2028, we don’t have offspring to release the following year, so it will take many, many years to repair this, if it’s even possible.”

Since January, the Trump administration has cut more than 56,000 employees across dozens of federal agencies — ranging from workers who fight wildfires on federal land to those who research vaccines to prevent the next pandemic. Some employees have been reinstated while many others are still on administrative leave and unable to do their work.

In response to a request for comment, Rachel Hager, a public affairs officer with NOAA Fisheries, wrote in an email that “Per long-standing practice, we are not discussing internal personnel and management matters.”

In the Pacific Northwest, salmon are deeply interwoven into the economic and cultural fabric. Over the last century, there’s been a well-documented decline in the number of salmon returning to Washington’s rivers, a shrinkage driven by habitat degradation, climate change and over harvesting.

Under NOAA, hatcheries have become vital to keeping salmon in some rivers, according to Daniel Schindler, an ecology professor at the University of Washington who studies fisheries.

“It’s safe to say that one of the critical roles that NOAA plays is to ensure that hatcheries are operated in a way to minimize impact on wild fish, particularly endangered stocks,” Dr. Schindler said. “Reducing those hatchery releases impacts everything from providing food for marine mammals to supporting tribal and sport fisheries.”

Ms. Finlay and most other reinstated NOAA employees have not regained access to their work accounts. Many also haven’t received official notices of termination that would allow them to more easily apply for unemployment or transfer insurance benefits for their families.

Mark Baltzell was also terminated in February from his government position as a fishery management specialist following decades doing similar work with Washington State’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said there are only a few people in NOAA who understand how the complicated management agencies for fisheries fit together.

“The more you diminish that capacity and the people involved in that work, it’s like the domino effect,” Mr. Baltzell said. “You start having a ripple effect on other parts of management or recovery of these populations.”

About 12 million Chinook salmon that are usually released each year could be affected, said Adrian Spidle, a fishery geneticist with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, an agency representing 20 tribes.

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission has helped forecast the return of salmon populations since the 1970s, and used those models to estimate how to sustain a healthy fish population and harvest. The responsibility for managing the fisheries and the salmon harvest is shared by the tribes and Washington State, and overseen by NOAA.

“NOAA either has to replace that person or give that person’s work to somebody,” Mr. Spidle said. “The thing about NOAA cutting people is that they can cut people but it doesn’t cut their obligations.”

Since the federal workers were terminated, communication with NOAA has been challenging for Mr. Spidle and others who work on the salmon program.

“Right now it goes back and forth whether we can even talk to NOAA people,” he said.

“It’s more complicated than the loss of one person,” he added, “it impacts all of us.”

David Troutt, the natural resources director for the Nisqually Indian Tribe said the loss of NOAA staff members who have dedicated careers to this work are hard to replace. “Even if the funding were restored, or NOAA was able to hire additional staff, they’re likely going to hire folks with less experience and understanding of the issues,” Mr. Troutt said. “I don’t know what the long term consequences of this might be.”

APPA Urges Members to Contact Lawmakers on Federal Funding Freeze Impacts, Seeks Details on Member Awards (American Public Power Association)

(WASHINGTON, DC) - - To better understand the impact of federal funding freezes on APPA members, APPA asks members to let the association know if a federal funding award has been “frozen” or delayed for members. In addition, APPA is seeking details on the award stage a member is in (i.e., a grant has been announced, a grant agreement and/or contract has been signed, a member is awaiting reimbursement, etc.), and the program under which a grant has been received (i.e., the DOE GRIP Program). Please provide these details to APPA’s David Hadley at: dhadley@publicpower.org. Additionally, if APPA members have been affected by these freezes, APPA is strongly encouraging members to tell their congressional delegations about the impact the freeze is or will have on their communities, customers, and the utility in question.

Redundant Environmental Review is Unlawful, Misleading, and Jeopardizes Services to Millions (Northwest RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

Regional Coalition of Power, Navigation, and Agriculture Users Push Back on New Federal Environmental Review

(PORTLAND, OR) - - A coalition of regional leaders calls on the federal government to withdraw its decision to initiate new environmental reviews of the Columbia and Snake River dams. ​The coalition contends that a new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be both premature and unlawful, warning that it would be incomplete and could mislead the public about these dams' vital role in supporting the region’s economy and environment.

Given the sharp rise in energy costs and the notable improved recovery of salmon and steelhead returns, the coalition urges the federal government to withdraw its intent to pursue new environmental analyses on the operations of federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. This diverse group, representing millions of electric customers, businesses, farmers, and river commerce leaders, is concerned that additional reviews are unnecessary at this time.

​The coalition argues that any supplemental NEPA analysis would be fundamentally flawed and misleading. There are significant concerns regarding the Co-Lead Agencies’ proposal to base the analysis on interim reports from the 12/14 Agreement studies and unscientific policy documents, which lack conclusive findings. Relying on these incomplete studies undermines the integrity of the NEPA process and risks rendering the Final NEPA document unlawful, as NEPA is designed to promote informed decision-making. According to the coalition, proceeding with a NEPA analysis based on such interim reports does not fulfill this essential objective.

The proposed environmental review could lead to breaching federal hydropower facilities that serve as the largest source of affordable, reliable, clean energy for millions of people in the region while also providing world-class, clean river transportation for the regions and nation’s economies.

The coalition responded to the Biden Administration's decision to move forward with a “Notice of Intent” to redo an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) completed in 2020. That study–just four years old–cost regional electric customers more than $55 million and considered more than 400,000 comments before concluding that our hydropower dams need to stay in place.

The 2020 study concluded that federal hydropower dams and locks are essential to maintaining affordable electric rates, reliable energy service to homes and businesses, and lower carbon emissions. Hydropower is the largest source of affordable, renewable, dispatchable generation in the Pacific Northwest.

Since that time, energy load forecasts have exploded. According to a 2024 report from the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, “Demand for electricity is projected to increase from about 23,700 average megawatts (aMW) in 2024 to about 31,100 aMW in 2033 (an increase of 7,400 aMW), which is an increase in demand of over 30% in the next 10 years.”

The federal government’s decision comes as electricity cost increases in the Pacific Northwest far outpace the national growth rate. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, retail electric rates across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana increased between 5.9-11.4% between 2022 and 2023— doubling (or far more) the 2.6% average rate of increase across the U.S. during the same period. The decision to proceed with additional environmental studies ignores publicly available data showing significant, sustained increases in fish returns.

Average salmon and steelhead returns have more than tripled at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and more than quadrupled at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River during the last 15 years when compared to the first adult fish counts at those facilities, according to data sourced from the University of Washington College of the Environment’s Data Access in Real Time (DART) website.

Further, a peer-reviewed study commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2021, “Climate change threatens Chinook Salmon through their lifecycle,” provided the following conclusions:

• “Survival through Columbia and Snake River dams generally now meets recovery targets (>96%), and cumulative mortality over 500 km of in-river migrating fish (~50%) is similar to that estimated for unregulated rivers of similar length (i.e., Fraser River).”
•  “Our analysis showed relative resilience in freshwater stages, with the dominant driver toward extinction being rising SST (sea surface temperature), which tracked a ~90% decline in survival in the marine life stage.”
•  “Our results indicate that as one symptom of a changing ocean, rising SST (sea surface temperature) puts all of our study populations at high risk of extinction, despite actions within the hydrosystem to speed juvenile travel and increase in-river survival.”

This diverse group of power, navigation, and agricultural users in the Northwest has a strong demonstrated history, and a continued commitment, to engaging when appropriate in proper reviews of programs and policies impacting the Columbia River Basin, its citizens, economies, and the environment. To that end, this coalition will continue to carefully monitor developments on this proposed environmental review and potential impacts to the Northwest.

The Columbia Basin Regional Alliance for Transparent (RAFT) is a coalition formed by the Public Power Council, the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, Northwest RiverPartners, Northwest Requirements Utilities, and other concerned stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest who are dedicated to safeguarding the value of hydropower and preserving the vitality of river commerce activities in and along the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Media Contacts:

•  Kurt Miller, Executive Director, Northwest Public Power Association - kurt@nwppa.org
• Zabyn Towner, Executive Director, Northwest Requirements Utilities - ztowner@nru-nw.com
• Clark Mather, Executive Director, Northwest RiverPartners - clark@nwriverpartners.org
• Neil Maunu, Executive Director, Pacific Northwest Waterways Association - neil.maunu@pnwa.net
• Scott Simms, CEO & Executive Director, Public Power Council - ssimms@ppcpdx.org
• Michelle Hennings, Executive Director, Washington Association of Wheat Growers - michelle@wawg.org

Additional Supporting Organizations:

• Association of Washington Business
• Idaho Consumer Utilities Association 
• Idaho Wheat Commission
• Montana Electric Cooperatives Association
• Oregon Municipal Electric Utilities Association
• Oregon People’s Utility District Association
• Oregon Wheat Commission
• Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Washington Public Utility Districts Association
• Washington Rural Electric Cooperative Association
• Washington State Water Resources Association