Conversation with Secretary of State John Kerry is the
culmination of years-long effort
State Department finalizes C-175, authorizing talks with
Canada
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Today, in a call with U.S. Senator Maria
Cantwell (D-WA), U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States
is ready to start talks with Canada on the Columbia River Treaty. The call
comes just hours after the State Department finalized Circular 175, authorizing
talks with Canada to modernize the treaty.
Cantwell has for years been urging the State Department to begin the
negotiation process.
Updating the Columbia River Treaty will present exciting new
economic opportunities for Washington State, as well as providing a new focus
on protecting the river’s ecosystem and addressing flood control.
The U.S. and Canada will work together to find win-win
solutions to manage the river, looking to cooperate on critical clean energy
solutions such as smart grids with intermittent power, grid-scale storage, and
clean infrastructure. The Treaty has not been updated since it was first
ratified in 1964.
The government of Canada had refused to begin talks until
the U.S. finalized its negotiating parameters, which are laid out in a document
called a Circular 175.
"The United States is officially ready to move forward
on negotiating a new Columbia River Treaty,"
said Senator Maria Cantwell after hearing the good news from Secretary of State
John Kerry. "A new agreement is critical to so many aspects of our
Northwest economy. I congratulate the administration on completing the Circular
175 negotiating terms and hope that now the Canadian Government will come to
the table and start detailing what a new hydro-agreement will look like."
The Circular 175 is based on regional recommendations
developed by stakeholders in the Columbia River Basin. The recommendations
balance ecosystem functions and community concerns including hydropower
generation and flood control.
Cantwell has been on the forefront in the charge to
modernize the treaty. Most recently, the Senator led 21 of her Senate and House
colleagues in a letter to Secretary Kerry pressing his agency to hasten its
finalization of the Circular 175. In March of this year, she spoke to Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the need to move forward with negotiations.
The Senator continued her push in June, meeting with Canadian Ambassador David
MacNaughton to discuss progress on the Canadian side. Last year, Cantwell sent
a letter to President Obama with 25 other members of the Pacific Northwest
Congressional delegation, urging the Administration to move forward with a
strategy for addressing the treaty. In 2014, Cantwell joined with 25 of her
colleagues to press for action on moving the process forward.
