News Release: Secret Agreement Between U.S. Government & Anti-Hydro Plaintiff Groups Represents “Greatest Threat” for the Region (NW RiverPartners)

Proposed US Government Commitments undermines clean energy and climate goals, negatively impacts the region’s economy and food production, raises electricity rates on struggling families, fails to address climate-friendly transportation and threatens grid reliability

 

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Earlier today, the US Government’s “Commitments in Support of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and in Partnership with the Six Sovereigns” (“USG Commitments”) was made public by members of the Northwest Congressional Delegation. The Six Sovereigns include the State of Oregon, the State of Washington, the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

 

Our joint press statement is in response to the public release of the USG Commitments. The USG Commitments spell out the terms of a proposed settlement over long-standing litigation surrounding the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) and the lower Snake River dams.

 

The USG Commitments are an outgrowth of a process that was supposed to support the collaborative development of “a durable long-term strategy to restore salmon and other native fish populations to healthy and abundant levels, honoring Federal commitments to Tribal Nations, delivering affordable and reliable clean power, and meeting the many resilience needs of stakeholders across the region.” This document fails to meaningfully address any of these requirements. Instead, it undermines the future of achieving clean energy mandates and potentially raises the rates of electricity customers across the region without addressing the true cause of salmon declines – the warming, acidifying ocean.

 

In a joint statement, the executive directors of Northwest RiverPartners, the Public Power Council, and the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association expressed extreme concern about the transparency of this process and the USG Commitments’ impacts on millions of Northwesterners, “Our organizations have repeatedly looked for ways to find common ground with the plaintiffs’ concerns during the mediation process, submitting numerous inputs, documents, and studies. Instead of working with all interests, the US Government took months to hold secret negotiations and refused to share any details with us, let alone allow our participation. It is not surprising, then, that this proposal turns its back on over three million electricity customers as well as the farming, transportation, navigation, and economic needs of the region. By purposely excluding our respective organizations from the negotiations, literally millions of Northwest residents were deprived of fair representation in this process.”

 

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, said of the secret agreement, “These USG Commitments would be devastating to the millions of electricity customers across the region that depend on the affordability and reliability of hydropower. As written, it hands the keys to anti-hydro parties whose stated objective is to dismantle the entire system. The outcome would gut the region’s decarbonization efforts. Higher energy prices will hurt the same vulnerable groups negatively affected by climate change.”

 

Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council, said, “PPC and its non-profit member utilities believe these USG Commitments pose the single greatest threat to the vitality of the region’s hydropower system we have ever faced. We are calling on the entire Northwest congressional delegation to stand up for the region’s electric grid and the communities dependent on clean, reliable hydropower.”

 

Neil Maunu, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, said, “We are extremely disappointed in the flawed process that led to these USG Commitments, which would eliminate shipping and river transportation in Idaho and eastern Washington and remove over 48,000 acres from food production. These USG Commitments threaten the livelihoods of farmers, ports, and barging operators and present river system safety concerns in a way we’ve never seen before.” 

 

The USG Commitments go well beyond creating a roadmap for breaching the lower Snake River dams, establishing a plan that could demolish the capabilities of the entire Federal Columbia River Power System. The document repeatedly requires the USG to consult and defer to plaintiff organizations without any requirement of engaging those reliant on the hydropower system and its many benefits. The USG Commitments notably exclude sideboards that would ensure the region’s clean energy mandates are reached before any actions are taken that would reduce the CO2-free generation provided by the dams. Further, the operational changes to the hydropower system are untested, leaving many questions about potential impacts. Contemplated additions of new “replacement resources” appear not to come close to the reliable performance features of clean, renewable hydro projects.      

 

These USG Commitments also fail to address the severe impacts of dam breaching on the region's ports, farmers, river users, and barging operators. Barging has remarkably low occurrences of injuries, fatalities, and spills, proving to be the safest cargo transportation method, surpassing rail and trucks. Barging stands out for its superior fuel efficiency and minimized emissions, underscoring the critical importance to this region and the fight against climate change. In addition, shifting commodity flows from barge to truck and rail – caused by the removal of navigation locks at the dams - will increase harmful emissions by over 1,251,000 tons per year. (FCS Group)  These harmful toxins are the equivalent of adding one large coal-fired power plant to the grid every two to three years.

 

The USG Commitments ignore scientific studies and rely solely on one unscientific NOAA policy document to justify spending billions of dollars. Climate change, especially the warming ocean, threatens salmon populations in rivers up and down the North American West Coast - whether or not dams are present. NOAA Fisheries’ own peer-reviewed study predicts Chinook salmon populations will approach extinction within the next four years if the ocean continues to warm at its current rate. The Northwest’s hydropower system is the greatest tool available to fight climate change. Destroying or diminishing the hydropower system to chase false “solutions” is a lose-lose proposition for both people and salmon.      

    

About Northwest RiverPartners

Northwest RiverPartners is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization. Members include community-owned utilities, ports, labor, agriculture, and businesses from across the northwestern United States. The organization is focused on raising awareness about how the Northwest’s hydropower system betters communities and the natural environment and encourages science-based solutions that help hydropower and salmon coexist and thrive. http://nwriverpartners.org

    

About the Public Power Council

The Public Power Council, established in 1966, is an association representing over 100 consumer-owned electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest.  PPC’s mission is to preserve and protect the benefits of the Federal Columbia River Power System for consumer-owned utilities and is a forum to identify, discuss, and build consensus around energy and utility issues.  For more information, please visit us on the web at www.ppcpdx.org.       

 

About Pacific Northwest Waterways Association

The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association is a non-profit, non-partisan trade association of ports, businesses, public agencies, farmers, and individuals who support navigation, energy, trade, and economic development throughout the region. Learn more at www.pnwa.net

Wind Advisory: Gusts 20-30 MPH, Possibly 50 MPH

 ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 7 AM PST

SATURDAY...

* WHAT...South winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph
  expected.

* WHERE...Southwest Interior, Everett and Vicinity, Tacoma Area,
  Hood Canal Area, Lower Chehalis Valley Area, Central Coast,
  Bellevue and Vicinity, Seattle and Vicinity and Bremerton and
  Vicinity.

* WHEN...From 7 PM this evening to 7 AM PST Saturday.

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects.
  Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may
  result.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Winds will be strongest near the water.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high
profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects.

The Lost Romance of Election Night

By Jeff Green

Written October 29, 2020

Election night in Shelton used to be an all-American experience full of drama, anxiety, pride, pathos and triumph.

People from all over Mason County swarmed the courthouse and climbed the stairs - or took the rickety elevator - to the courtroom on the second floor. There they’d pack the wooden pews, or stand in the back and along the side walls.

Not long after the polls closed at eight o’clock, poll workers from various precincts started to arrive carrying locked wooden boxes full of ballots. Election department employees would unlock the boxes and prepare ballots for counting by a machine set up right in the midst of the courtroom.

Between ballot counts, every hour or longer, people chatted, moved around or tried to devine meaning through their pocket calculators.

As the evening moved along, the courtroom grew hotter and stuffier from body heat and the ancient steam radiators whose regulators had long ago been stripped and no longer worked.

The courtroom’s large windows were thrown open and the chilly November night air cooled the stifling courtroom by two or three degrees. It was great to stand near the windows and feel the cool air.

After the machine spit out each count, the county clerk would write the ballot sub-totals on butcher paper affixed to blackboards. The room quieted and you could hear her marker squeak as she wrote the numbers for each candidate. Supporters cheered or groaned depending on how the numbers fell.

Most people were there for the local races. Some races were settled early as one candidate would pull away and keep increasing his or her lead.

But the best races were those where the lead changed back and forth - and back again - during the night. That was when election watchers were in their element; their nerves frazzled, their pulses racing.

And then, it was announced the final count was being tallied on the machine. Sometimes that was well after midnight. The room fell silent. Most held their breath as the clerk wrote the totals on the boards.

Sometimes the courtroom exploded in whoops and cheers from the backers of winners, while those favoring the runners-up sighed and started putting on their coats.

Eventually, everybody went home in the late-night or early-morning cold. It was always exciting, always a spectacle, always electric to watch the returns roll in.

In today’s vote-by-mail era, there are no precinct workers. Gone are the wooden boxes, the butcher paper, the buzzing of the vote-counting machine. The courtroom is dark and empty on election night. 

These days printed results are handed out to the few who show up at the county commissioners’ chambers and posted online shortly after eight.

The process is fast and accurate but mechanical. All that’s missing is the humanity and emotions and pulse-pounding atmosphere on election night of year’s past.

Jeff Green passed away in 2022.

News Release: NW RiverPartners Reacts to Latest Delay in Lower Snake River Dam Talks (NW RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

October 31, 2923

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - The United States Government announced Wednesday that it would be producing for comment a draft package of “actions and commitments” that it developed in secret with plaintiffs’ groups.  We have been provided with no other details other than that we will have 30 to 45 days of “engagement” in a “conferral” process to review the document(s). This action is more of the same by only including ratepayer advocates after the fact.

Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, responded, “The US Government, led by the Council on Environmental Quality, is keeping those who keep your lights on in the dark. As a nonprofit representing more than three million ratepayers throughout the five-state region, Northwest RiverPartners will be reviewing these documents in the context of climate change, grid reliability, affordability, and science.”

Key questions:

Do the proposed actions and commitments help the region meet its climate change policy objectives?

We already feel the effects of climate change in our region, with our most vulnerable populations bearing the hardest burdens of those impacts.  During the 2021 heat dome, we lost over 500 people due to the high temperatures.  We can only meet the challenges of climate change by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

Today, about a third of Washington state’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels.  To reduce emissions, we need every renewable energy source available.  In the NW, our biggest renewable energy source is hydroelectricity.  Study after study indicates that we cannot meet our emissions reduction goals without fully employing every one of our hydro assets.  Removing any productive renewable hydro facility before reaching our climate change goals means burning more fossil fuels. 

Do the proposed actions and commitments support grid reliability for the region?

The Western Electricity Coordinating Council has forecasted that all subregions of the Western Grid will be at risk of blackouts as early as 2025.  And efforts to further decarbonize our economy are driving electric demand growth like we’ve never seen before.  Different evaluations of growth in load demand range between 50% - 140% by 2050, depending on where you are in the region.

At the same time, as we are increasing demand, we are retiring supply in the form of dispatchable coal and gas assets.  NW RiverPartners performed an analysis that indicates that the region must add 160 GW of new clean energy capacity in the next 20 years to meet our decarbonization objectives.  That is over double our existing generating capacity. These numbers assume that all our existing hydro assets remain in place.

The Bonneville Power Administration, University of Washington, and Stanford University have performed analyses that indicate that Pacific Northwest hydro – unlike some other hydro in the West – will continue to supply the region with much-needed reliable power into the foreseeable future.

Do the proposed actions and commitments support energy affordability?

A study commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration in 2022 examined replacement resources and cost impacts associated with the removal of the Lower Snake River dams.  The analysis identified cost increases of up to 65% for public power customers.

Public utilities are not looking to make a profit or pay a dividend to shareholders.  The rates our consumers pay are tied directly to the cost required to deliver them energy.  Our public utilities serve millions of customers throughout the region daily, many of whom struggle with their bills.  Electricity is an essential human service. As we respond to and try to mitigate the impacts of climate change, our most vulnerable populations will be most exposed and most impacted by the costs of dealing with it.

Do the proposed actions and commitments have a scientific basis in salmon recovery?

• Mounting scientific evidence shows that the greatest threat to salmon survival is the impact of climate change.  NOAA scientists have determined:
• “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.”
• “This recent downturn in adult abundance is thought to be driven primarily by marine environmental conditions and a decline in ocean productivity because hydropower operations, the overall availability and quality of tributary and estuary habitat, and hatchery practices have been relatively constant or improving over the past 10 years.”

Northwest RiverPartners Names Heather Stebbings as Interim Executive Director (Northwest RiverPartners)

Stebbings will manage the transition to the organization’s next leader

October 24, 2023

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Northwest RiverPartners announced Heather Stebbings as interim executive director starting November 15th. Stebbings will overlap with outgoing Executive Director Kurt Miller to ensure a smooth transition. Miller recently accepted a role leading the Northwest Public Power Association.

Most recently, Stebbings served as PNWA’s executive director. Heather has worked closely with Northwest RiverPartners in the ongoing federal mediation process over hydropower operations. She is a strong advocate for preserving the lower Snake River dams for the many communities that depend on the dams for clean, affordable energy, transportation, and irrigation.

“We couldn’t be more excited about Heather joining Northwest RiverPartners as its interim executive director,” said Rich Wallen, Northwest RiverPartners’ Board Chair. “Heather is an experienced and respected leader. Her familiarity with the region’s hydropower infrastructure benefits will provide important continuity to RiverPartners during this transition period.”

Stebbings has over 15 years of advocacy and public policy experience in support of the Northwest’s hydropower infrastructure, including 13 years directing communications and government relations for the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association.

“Northwest RiverPartners is a critical voice in the region to preserve clean, affordable hydroelectricity. The work to educate the public and policymakers has been incredibly effective under Kurt’s leadership. I’m excited about the opportunity to have a hand in making sure those efforts continue,” said Stebbings.

The Northwest RiverPartners board will form a hiring committee to recruit and hire a permanent executive director to continue advocating for hydropower on behalf of millions of ratepayers.

Kurt Miller Named as NWPPA’s Incoming Executive Director (Northwest Public Power Association)

October 17, 2023

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Yesterday, the Northwest Public Power Association Board of Trustees selected Kurt Miller to be the association’s next executive director, effective Dec. 1, 2023. Miller is currently the executive director of Northwest RiverPartners, a regional hydropower advocacy group. The previous NWPPA executive director, Scott Corwin, vacated the position in August to lead the American Public Power Association as its new CEO. Kieran Connolly has been serving as interim executive director in his absence.

“What is so terrific about Kurt is that he brings both enthusiasm and talent to the association,” said NWPPA Board President Doug Schmier. “I am excited to start working with him on the issues that greatly affect our NWPPA membership and watch him guide us into the future. And I would like to thank Kieran for his tenure as interim and everyone on the search committee for their time and insight. Through the process, we found our next executive director and are confident in saying he is the absolute correct person for the position.”

Miller comes to NWPPA with over 30 years of experience in the public power industry and has been the executive director of Northwest RiverPartners since 2019. While there, he developed a five-year plan based on successful advocacy models, bringing together government affairs, public relations, and grassroots/grass-tops infrastructure to improve public policy outcomes. He improved the financial health and capabilities of the organization by increasing the number of members by 25% and revenues by over 50% in four years. Miller also established himself as a national thought-leader and spokesperson for hydropower, speaking before the Western Congressional Caucus for both the House and the Senate and serving as a keynote speaker at Hydropower International.

“I couldn’t be more honored to be named the new executive director for NWPPA. I am excited to build on NWPPA’s legacy of providing a strong value proposition to its members,” said Miller. “I believe there are opportunities to leverage NWPPA’s strengths to provide new benefits to our members across the Western states and Canada.”

Prior to Northwest RiverPartners, Miller worked for Portland General Electric for 20 years. At PGE he worked in multiple areas, including organizational change management; customer training and education; smart grid technologies and new customer programs; and power supply trading analytics. His achievements there include leading the successful completion of the region’s largest smart grid implementation project; leading the largest organizational change management effort for wholesale operations; and developing PGE’s Business Case for Diversity and twice chairing PGE’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Prior to working for PGE, he founded the first successful wholesale electricity brokerage office in the United States.

Miller started his career working as an economist for the Bonneville Power Administration. Miller graduated magna cum laude from Willamette University with a Bachelor of Science in economics. While there, he also received the Theodore Shay Prize in Economics. In addition, he has an Accelerated Leadership Development Program certificate from PGE and a Utility Executive Course certificate from the University of Idaho. In 2022, Miller was a speaker at Van Talks in Vancouver, Washington, where he shared the importance of thoughtful energy policies. 

News Release: Biden Administration Agrees with Northwest RiverPartners on Importance of Region’s Carbon-Free Electricity, Agriculture & Salmon (NW RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - Today, after 13 months at the negotiating table, the Biden Administration shared the next step in the process of seeking solutions in balancing our region’s energy, climate, salmon recovery, resiliency, food security, and economic goals as they relate to the ongoing operations of the Federal Columbia River Power System. In a Presidential Memorandum, President Biden acknowledged the region must meet its commitments for reliable carbon-free electricity, for agriculture, and for salmon:

“In recognition of these priorities, it is the policy of my Administration to work with the Congress and with Tribal Nations, States, local governments, and stakeholders to pursue effective, creative, and durable solutions, informed by Indigenous Knowledge, to restore healthy and abundant salmon, steelhead, and other native fish populations in the Basin; to secure a clean and resilient energy future for the region; to support local agriculture and its role in food security domestically and globally; and to invest in the communities that depend on the services provided by the Basin’s Federal dams to enhance resilience to changes to the operation of the CRS, including those necessary to address changing hydrological conditions due to climate change.”

These multiple objectives of fighting climate change, restoring salmon, and ensuring healthy agriculture through a robust hydropower system are at the foundation of Northwest RiverPartners’ goals for the region.

While we are encouraged by the Biden Administration's commitment to these multiple objectives made possible by the hydropower system, we are disappointed the Memorandum ignores the fact that much of the work has already been accomplished through the development of the 2020 Columbia River System Operation Final Environmental Impact Statement (CRSO FEIS) and corresponding Biological Opinion.  As the most robust multi-objective study the region has undertaken, the CRSO FEIS demonstrates the best ways to achieve the multiple objectives articulated by the Administration and should form the basis for any future decisions.

In response to today’s announcement by the Biden Administration, Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners issued the following statement:

“Today’s announcement is bittersweet. Northwest RiverPartners applauds the Biden Administration for going on record as recognizing the unique and essential role the region’s hydroelectric dams, including the Lower Snake River Dams, play in helping us meet our clean energy, climate, economic, and salmon recovery objectives.  Unfortunately, the Memorandum released today builds on and extends a flawed process that has denied affected stakeholders and the public a meaningful role.  Any further effort to develop a plan to achieve the multiple objectives articulated by the Memorandum must allow for and facilitate greater involvement by affected stakeholders.

The issues of energy affordability, reliability, and decarbonizing our grid must be central to any plan development going forward.  We urge the Biden Administration to embrace the importance of affordable energy for the Pacific Northwest. Over 25% of our region qualifies as energy burdened. The Biden Administration should consider potential impacts to these people, including within the context of the Administration’s own Justice 40 Initiative as it considers plan development going forward. Multiple studies have shown that the energy replacement costs if the Lower Snake River dams were destroyed would be $15 billion or more. That doesn’t count the billions in additional costs for agriculture and shipping.”

Additionally, a more inclusive and science-based dialogue regarding salmon recovery standards and the timeframe for achieving them needs to be part of plan development going forward.  In a mid-May 2023 public interview, Richie Graves, NOAA’s Columbia Hydropower Branch Chief noted:

For every 100 young chinook and steelhead that head downstream and past the four dams every spring, about 75 survive.  “That’s pretty good,” said Ritchie Graves, Columbia Hydropower Branch chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “In a lot of river systems, that would be something they would shoot for.”  For each of the four dams, NOAA maintains a separate survival standard for juvenile salmon heading downstream. The agency wants 96% survival for yearling chinook and steelhead, and 93% for “subyearling” chinook less than a year old.  The dams are achieving those performance standards, Graves said.  For adult fish swimming upstream, the survival rate is above 90%.[i]

But in a separate, unauthored report that included inputs from plaintiffs to the litigation, others at NOAA defined the recovery standard differently.  And an increasing body of research is demonstrating that the greatest threat to salmon survival is climate change.  Before a plan can be developed, scientific metrics used to measure success must be established and agreed to.  Today they are not.

Miller continued, “We have one shot at responding to climate change.  Our hydroelectric dams play an essential role in meeting the challenges we – and the salmon – confront with climate change.  This must remain a central pillar of the Administration’s efforts going forward.”

[i] https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/grains/amid-a-battle-over-snake-river-dams-a-look-at-how-the-salmon-are-doing/article_c76c740a-dadd-11ed-ad18-9fb96a214c52.html

News Release: Northwest RiverPartners’ Statement on Salmon Reintroduction in the Upper Columbia River Basin (Northwest RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

(VANCOUVER, WA) --The following statement can be attributed to Kurt Miller, executive director of Northwest RiverPartners:

“The announcement of an agreement between the US Government, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians shows we can work toward realizing both our clean energy and salmon recovery goals and solve problems collaboratively to benefit all of our communities.  

Taking this next step in studying salmon reintroduction above these blocked areas is the right thing to do. It lays the foundation for the possibility of sustainable salmon runs in the upper Columbia River Basin. Reintroduction has the potential to create hundreds of miles of upstream habitat for salmon, responds to important Tribal commitments, and does so without negatively impacting the hydropower our region relies on for carbon-free, affordable energy.

Northwest RiverPartners’ board of directors visited the Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) in Spokane in April to learn more about the UCUT Phase 2 Implementation Plan (P2IP) proposal. We appreciate the time UCUT took to educate us on P2IP and the foundation it provides to scientifically study the reintroduction of salmon above Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee Dams—two dams that were built without fish passage. Our board was unanimous in supporting P2IP. 

We also want to acknowledge the leadership and contribution the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) – and, ultimately, ratepayers – are making to accomplish these goals.  While we do have some reservations about the open-ended language in the Memorandum of Understanding presented by the US government, we look forward to partnering with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the UCUT organization to explore opportunities for additional non-BPA funding to fully implement this effort.”

Public Power Council, Inland Ports & Navigation Group, Northwest RiverPartners release joint statement on Biden Administration extension of Columbia River System Operations litigation mediation (NW RiverPartners)

Organizations Express Concern with the Process - Support More Transparency

August 31, 2023

(Vancouver, WA) -- Today, the Biden Administration requested [and secured] an additional 60-day stay extension to allow for continuation of the already two year-long mediation process regarding the Columbia River System Operations litigation. The Public Power Council, Inland Ports and Navigation Group, and Northwest RiverPartners did not oppose this limited further extension of the stay while we continue to review its longer-term implications.  Although respectful of the confidential nature of the substance of the ongoing mediation discussions, all three of our organizations nevertheless feel compelled to express their deep reservations and considerable disappointment regarding the overall process that has been followed in the mediation so far, and we intend to remain highly engaged on seeking to ensure that it is meaningfully modified going forward so as to become more productive, inclusive, and transparent during this latest stay extension.

 

Our organizations collectively represent millions of electricity customers, farmers, river-dependent ports, transportation, and export sectors across the region who to date have not had a true seat at the table in negotiations carried out pursuant to the ongoing mediation.  This is of significant concern to us because we feel strongly that major decisions about the region’s continuing ability to provide reliable, safe, low-carbon electricity and transportation should not be decided when directly and significantly impacted parties such as our organizations are not present in the room.

 

We therefore strongly urge the Biden Administration and all other parties to the litigation to avail themselves of this new extension and join together at the mediation table to discuss our shared goals of salmon recovery within the context of maintaining grid reliability, energy affordability, access to irrigation, and low-emission transportation options, while also meeting the challenges presented by climate change.  We also urge the Biden Administration and plaintiffs in the litigation to acknowledge the many operational and financial concessions already made over decades – up to and including as recently as this year.  Our organizations, and each of our respective members, stand in solidarity behind the principle that this extension should be seen as an opportunity for truly comprehensive and productive negotiations among all major stakeholders and not used simply as a means to craft steep concessions to plaintiffs that will saddle even greater costs and burdens on ratepayers and river users, while not adequately accounting for their interests and values or ensuring that the full suite of critically important purposes of the Columbia River System are met.

 

Kurt Miller, NWRP Executive Director, released the following statement regarding the Biden Administration’s announcement today:

 

“Hydropower is the cornerstone of our region’s clean, reliable, and equitable energy future. Given the threat posed by climate change to people and to salmon, carbon-free hydropower is even more important. We can’t have salmon recovery without reducing emissions and lessening our dependence on fossil fuels.  Hydropower is our region’s solution to the climate crisis.”

 

Scott Simms, CEO & Executive Director of the Public Power Council, released the following statement:

 

“Hydropower is the backbone of this region’s energy supply while also being the largest, most consistent source of funding for one of the world’s largest fish and wildlife mitigation programs – bar none. Revenues from Northwest non-profit, community-owned utilities already fund the lion’s share of habitat, hatchery and hydro system improvements, all the while as robust fish harvesting activities continue year in and year out. We need others to join us in our efforts to help salmon, not look for ways to further hobble the very hydro system that currently provides a vast range of environmental and economic value to Northwest communities large and small.”

 

Neil Maunu, Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA) Executive Director, released the following statement on behalf of the Inland Ports and Navigation Group, a subset of PNWA:

 

"Low-cost, fuel-efficient barge transportation is one of the main reasons our region continues to be competitive in the global market. It keeps our products moving, our economy thriving and plays a significant role in our region's efforts to combat climate change,” said Neil Maunu. “The communities that rely on this river system, including farmers, farm workers, and transportation operators, support a collaborative, science-based approach to salmon recovery in the Columbia River Basin. We are committed to being part of the solution in these conversations going forward and to ensuring that we can continue to have a healthy river and a healthy economy in the Northwest.”

 

Background

The Inland Ports and Navigation Group (IPNG) is comprised of ports, farmers, pilots, transportation companies, terminals and water resources stakeholders who work to balance economic prosperity with environmental stewardship. They strive to protect inland navigation, hydropower, irrigation on the Columbia Snake River System, while supporting a healthy environment and robust fish runs in the Northwest. IPNG is a subset of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA), a broad regional trade group representing over 150 members from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. www.rivervalues.com. 

 

The Public Power Council, established in 1966, is an association that represents over 100 consumer-owned electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest.  PPC’s mission is to preserve and protect the benefits of the Federal Columbia River Power System for consumer-owned utilities, and is a forum to identify, discuss and build consensus around energy and utility issues.  For more information, please visit us on the web at www.ppcpdx.org. 

 

Northwest RiverPartners is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization. Members include community-owned utilities, ports, and businesses from across the northwestern United States. The organization is focused on raising awareness about how the Northwest’s hydropower system betters communities and the natural environment and encourages science-based solutions that help hydropower and salmon coexist and thrive. http://nwriverpartners.org.

Ratepayer Owned Public Utilities Launch Ads to Protect Affordable, Reliable, and Clean Power for Communities (News Release: Northwest RiverPartners)

The Biden Administration’s consideration of a proposal to tear down dams public utilities in Northern Nevada rely on could raise electricity rates by up to 65%.

 

(VANCOUVER, WA) - - On behalf of four of its Nevada members, Northwest RiverPartners today launched ads that urge the Biden Administration to protect affordable, reliable, and clean hydropower.

There are four public electric utility cooperatives serving Northern Nevada which receive nearly 100% of their electricity from the Federal Columbia River Power System managed by the Bonneville Power Administration.  Nevadans affected by power rate increases would be customers of Surprise Valley Electrification Corporation in Washoe County; Harney Electric Cooperative in Humboldt County; Wells Rural Electric Company in Elko and Eureka Counties; and Raft River Rural Electric Cooperative in Elko County.

“As a small, customer owned utility, we purchase power from the Bonneville Power Administration.  BPA power is baked into the economy of Northern Nevada.  Many of our co-op members may not even know that hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake River provide almost 100% of the electricity for our community. Without these dams, our rates would be forced to increase,” said Clay Fitch, CEO, Wells Rural Electric Cooperative.

A study commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration in 2022 examined replacement resources and costs for impacts associated with the removal of the lower Snake River dams. Under a “deep decarbonization” scenario with no new combustion, the analysis identified cost increases of up to 65% for public power customers.

Losing the dams on the lower Snake River would not only hurt Nevadans by raising electricity prices, it would also hurt electricity reliability and Nevada’s ability to meet state greenhouse gas emissions goals in communities who have already seen the impacts of climate change from fires, heat domes, and even remnants of a tropical storm.

Utilities are already confronting unprecedented challenges in ensuring reliability of the Western grid due to extreme weather and the retirement of fossil fueled generation.  Policies aimed at electrifying transportation and home heating to fight climate change may double the demand for power by 2050. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council has forecasted that all subregions of the Western Grid will be at risk of blackouts as early as 2025.  In confronting these challenges, the United States can’t afford to lose any clean, reliable source of energy like the hydropower Nevadans depend on.

The public utilities at greatest risk of rate increases serve communities defined by the Biden Administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) “Climate and Economic Justice Screen Tool” as “overburdened, underserved, and disadvantaged.” 

Chad Black, General Manager of the Raft River Rural Electric Cooperative, “Many of our members find it challenging to carry the energy burden they already do, and it is these communities who will be hardest hit by massive rate increases if we are unable to meet our decarbonization efforts on schedule.”  

Guided by a stay order issued by the U.S. District Court of Oregon, The Biden Administration has entered into private meetings with plaintiffs to try to resolve the litigation related to the Columbia River System.  The stay order articulates a set of “Federal Government Commitments” which include: “The Administration commits to exploring lower Snake River habitat restoration opportunities, including but not limited to migration corridor restoration through breaching the four lower Snake River dams.”  The State of Nevada is not represented in the settlement discussions.

It is difficult for these public utilities to watch the federal government negotiating behind closed doors on something that is imperative to Nevadans. The Biden Administration owes the people of Nevada and these co-op members more answers on whether they intend to raise electricity rates and set back our nation’s clean energy goals.

Earlier this summer representatives from Harney Electric Cooperative, Raft River Electric Cooperative, and Wells Rural Electric Cooperative sent a letter to the Nevada Congressional delegation expressing these concerns. You can read the letter here.

You can watch an ad here: https://youtu.be/bBTxO5LETRw

 

About Northwest RiverPartners

Northwest RiverPartners is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization.

Members include community-owned utilities, ports, and businesses from across the northwestern United States. The organization is focused on raising awareness about how the Northwest’s hydropower system betters communities and the natural environment and encourages science-based solutions that help hydropower and salmon coexist and thrive. http://nwriverpartners.org

Anti-Hydro Interests Continue Attack on Pacific NW Clean Energy (Northwest RiverPartners, Vancouver, WA)

Removing region’s hydroelectric infrastructure is anti-science and would result in more fossil fuel consumption

(Vancouver, WA) - - A group led by anti-hydro and harvest interests, including the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Idaho Rivers United, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Idaho Conservation League, on Friday announced their intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding water temperatures in the Snake River.

In the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, these special interests are ignoring science by asserting that Snake River dams—not climate change--cause water conditions dangerous to sockeye salmon.  If these groups are successful in destroying the Pacific Northwest’s hydroelectric infrastructure, the region’s biggest source of carbon-free energy, they would prolong the region’s reliance on electricity produced from fossil fuels.

Kurt Miller, Northwest RiverPartners Executive Director said:

“It’s concerning that anti-hydro interests are taking a position to remove our most important carbon-free energy source when they say they are concerned about hot river temperatures.  Water is our power to fight climate change.  Study after study demonstrates that we can’t meet our clean energy goals without our existing hydroelectric infrastructure.

“Losing these dams inevitably means more years spent relying on fossil fuel electricity generation, increasing our carbon footprint, and making ocean and river temperatures more dangerous for salmon. Meeting our clean energy goals and continuing our salmon recovery efforts isn’t advanced by lawsuits from special interests. As recent investments have shown, we can move toward recovering salmon and keeping our clean hydropower infrastructure.” 

Northwest RiverPartners has closely followed the science on river temperatures.  Warmer air temperatures cause warmer river temperatures. There have been heat-related salmon die-offs in Canada’s undammed Fraser River and undammed rivers as far north as Alaska.

It’s also noteworthy that these groups filed a lawsuit over sockeye salmon, even though this year’s Snake River sockeye returns are some of the best in recent memory.

This fight is not new, similar anti-hydro and salmon harvest interests took out a full-page ad in The New York Times in October 1999 urging then Vice President Gore to make the decision to remove the four Lower Snake River dams or Snake River Chinook salmon “will be extinct by 2017.”  According to Columbia River Dart data, a project of the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences (Columbia River Dart), 15,783 total adult Chinook passed through Ice Harbor Dam in 1999, the lowest on the Snake River.  Thanks to federal and ratepayer investments in fish passage and salmon recovery, those numbers had jumped to 63,983 in 2017 and by 2022 (the last data set available on the Columbia River Dart website), that number had increased to 118,759.

Miller added, “For a quarter of a century, anti-hydro interests have ignored the facts and the science on climate change and the important role our region’s hydroelectric dams play in helping meet the challenge of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. By doing so, they hurt our efforts to reduce emissions and help salmon that are dying because of climate change.”

Key study reference sources below:

1. PNNL peer-reviewed study showing lower Snake dams help mitigate extreme river temperature
2. NOAA Fisheries peer-reviewed study showing undammed Salmon River is more at risk for extreme river temperatures than lower Snake River because the Salmon River doesn’t have dams to help maintain flows.
3. Three studies demonstrating prolonged reliance on fossil fuels if dams are removed: “Executive Summary: Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement,” https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll7/id/14957; “2019 Biennial Energy Report: Issues, Analysis and Updates,” Washington State Department of Commerce: http://www.commerce.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/COMMERCE-Biennial-Energy.pdf, states: “First, without explicit policy support, the electrification of the state's economy - in particular, the conversion of various transportation uses from gasoline and diesel – will likely not be served entirely with renewable energy. Hydro is the main source of power in the existing mix, but Washington cannot add new large hydro projects to meet growth in electricity demand. A likely scenario is that utilities would meet growing demand with a combination of natural gas generation and enough new renewables to comply with the 15 percent standard under the EIA.”;  https://nwriverpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EGPSC_LSRD-Power-Cost-Replacement-Study_6_29_2022_Final_1223.pdf: Due to existing decarbonization mandates all planned wind and solar generation is already spoken for. To keep the grid reliable without hydropower, we’d have to run more fossil fuel generation to try to meet energy demand equating to millions of additional metric tons of CO2.
4. Climate impacts on salmon:  The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” noted that declines in ecosystem function and fish populations have coincided with “unabated” warming of the ocean since 1970 (https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/3/2022/03/01_SROCC_SPM_FINAL.pdf): Similarly, a peer-reviewed study by Dr. David Welch in 2020 compared Chinook salmon survival along the West Coast of North America during the same 50-year period. His study concluded that these populations have experienced a 65% decline in survival rates.  Those figures apply to nearly pristine rivers in Southeast Alaska and Canada as well as more urban areas like the Puget Sound (“A synthesis of the coast-wide decline in survival of West Coast Chinook Salmon [Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, Salmonidae],” by David Warren Welch,Aswea Dawn Porter,Erin Leanne Rechisky; first published 30 October 2020); NOAA Fisheries Science Center published a peer-reviewed paper in 2021 showing that if ocean temperatures continue to warm at their current rate, key Chinook populations will be extinct within 40 years (“Climate change threatens Chinook salmon throughout their lifecycle,” by Lisa Crozier, Brian Burke, Brandon Chasco, Daniel Widener, Richard Zabel; published February 18, 2021). 
5. May 2020 EPA Total Maximum Daily Load for Temperature

“Even if all the allocations in this TMDL are implemented and the temperature reductions envisioned are fully realized, it is unlikely that the numeric criteria portion of the WQS [Water Quality Standard] will be met at all times and all places. Sources outside the allocation structure of this TMDL contribute to warmer temperatures. These sources include increased air temperatures throughout the study area and upstream human activities in Idaho and Canada, resulting in Columbia and Snake River water temperatures that already exceed the numeric criteria portion of the WQS when those rivers enter the geographic area covered by this TMDL.” (Emphasis added)