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Four Native tribes, two states and the US government have agreed to work together to replace the energy now produced by hydroelectric dams. Congress could then vote to breach the dams to restore native fish populations.
An agreement between the US government, Washington, Oregon and four Native American tribes will facilitate the construction of at least 1 GW to 3 GW of tribal-sponsored clean energy capacity, the Biden Administration said.
The agreement, which began as a proposal from the four tribes and two states to the Biden Administration, will have federal funding that could exceed $1 billion. The agreement encompasses the original proposal, known as the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, and has the ultimate goal of restoring salmon, steelhead and other native fish populations to the river basin.
A key element of the agreement is the goal of breaching four dams on the lower Snake River, the locations of which, all in southeastern Washington, are shown in the Trout Unlimited image below labeled 5, 6, 7 and 8 .
Salmon populations in the river system have declined due to the presence of hydroelectric dams, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported. The lower Snake River salmon and steelhead populations are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
A 2022 report sponsored by Washington Governor and Washington Senator Jay Inslee and Patty Murray, respectively, recommended replacing the services of the lower Snake River dams before breaching any dams.
The new agreement conforms to that recommendation. Specifies actions by the parties to deploy renewable generation to serve as replacement power for the lower Snake River hydroelectric dams, to clear the way for Congress to authorize breaching the dams.
Under the agreement, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture will work with signatory tribes to provide technical assistance, planning and funding for any roles the tribes want to take on in connection with renewable energy projects, such as “individual ownership or collective, leasing, energy acquisition, etc.”
The four tribal nations that have signed the agreement are the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe. The dates of their treaties with the United States Government are indicated below.
The U.S. Department of Energy will also provide funding to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and potentially other Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories to complete a regional energy needs planning process.
The DOE said it would work with the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal agency that manages the regions transmission, to “continue to advance reforms to the BPAs interconnection processes, with the goal of significantly expediting the interconnection process and identifying means for more efficient use of existing transmission.”
Nez Perce Tribe Chairman Shannon F. Wheeler stated: “As Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) we are linked to salmon and rivers: they are our sources of life. We will not allow extinction to be an option for salmon, or for us. The United States is bound to salmon and to us by the Treaty in which we reserve all of our fisheries: our Treaty is the supreme law of the land under the United States Constitution.”
Recommendations issued by Governor Inslee and Senator Murray in 2022 called for immediate action to deploy the scale of clean energy infrastructure needed to address the climate crisis, regardless of whether or not Congress authorizes breaching of the course dams. lower Snake River.
Several of the signatories to the agreement are parties to pending litigation to protect native fish populations in the Columbia River Basin, which have agreed to put their claims on hold in favor of reaching the agreement.
Regarding the planned replacement of hydropower with renewables, Nancy Hirsh, executive director of the NW Energy Coalition, said that in the last decade the region has replaced 2 GW of coal generation with new wind, solar, battery storage and energy efficiency. Hirsh highlighted a study carried out in 2022 by the consulting firm Energy Strategies and sponsored by his group, according to which the construction of 1.3 GW of solar energy, 1.4 GW of wind energy and 0.2 GW of battery capacity would be the least expensive option to replace the annual generation of the four dams so as to balance the important remaining hydroelectric generation in the region.
The Bonneville Power Administration estimates that the agreement will have an average annual rate impact of 0.7%.
Hirsh said, “No one is saying these replacement energy services are free, but the cost of maintaining the lower Snake River dams is considerable and managing salmon to extinction is unacceptable.”
The 92-page agreement between the tribes, states and the US Government was filed in the US District Court of Oregon and consists of three parts: the memorandum of understanding, the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and the commitments of the Federal Government. |
