President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday to revoke executive action by former President Joe Biden in Washington state with the Lower Snake River Dam, a move that advocates for their continued action while environmentalists are being criticized. [emphasis, links added]
Four Lower Snake River Dams are located in eastern Washington and were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s and 1970s, which also operate them.
The dam produces an average of about 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
For years, Washington has been politically debated whether the Lower Snake River Dam should be destroyed or demolished to help the endangered salmon subspecies recover.
Opponents of dam violators believe that improvements in fish access improve their survival rates moving in damsalthough advocates believe these rates are not sufficient to help subspecies recover healthy population levels.
In 2023, Biden signed a memorandum that ordered the dam operation to “in a way to provide equitable treatment for fish and wildlife, with other purposes of managing and operating federal dams.”
Memorandum revokes Biden's order claiming it is “Worries about climate change are higher than the U.S. interests in reliable energy resources” Add it It requires “the federal government will spend millions of dollars and keep the heavy commitment of 36 pages of dam operations on the Lower Snake River.”
“This is not only Washington's economy and energy, but it's good news for salmon,” Todd Myers, vice president of research at the Washington Center for Policy Research, wrote in a statement. The memorandum is consistent with the scientific-based conclusion of the largest ever environmental analysis published by the Federal Scientific Agency in 2020, which recommends fixing the dam in place.transparent
“Dam rivals have been claiming that Snake River salmon are on the verge of extinction,” Miles added.
“They have been wrong. Recently, in 2021, the dam rival claimed that wild Chinook on the Snake River would be “functionally extinct” this year. The return this year is slightly above the 10-year average. Early estimates are that the profits will be higher next year.transparent
Rep. Dan Newhouse wrote in a statement that Trump's memorandum “reversed efforts by the Biden administration and extreme environmentalists to remove dams, This will threaten the reliability of our power grid, increase energy prices, and undermine our ability to export grains to foreign markets.transparent
Top photo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River in Washington state.
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