Energy Secretary Wright ‘passionately' ignorant about Northwest hydropower

The Hill

3 days ago

The U.S. built more than 1,000 hydroelectric dams over the last century. These dams are as different in size, shape and function as the rivers where they were built. Their social and environmental costs and benefits also differ.
Tribes, states, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have recently pushed to remove four federally-owned dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington State. The goal is to restore abundant salmon runs and honor tribal rights and treaties.
But in a congressional hearing on May 7, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he 'passionately' supports keeping these four dams around. Wright also revealed that he has no idea what these four dams actually do.
Not all dams are the same. The Lower Snake River dams don't produce the kind of 'high value electricity' that Wright claimed they do. These four dams produce just 4 percent of the region's electricity, mostly in the spring and early summer when the Pacific Northwest has far more wind, solar and other hydroelectricity than we need.
Wright has been led to believe that the Lower Snake River dams act like a gigantic storage device, such that 'when demand for electricity goes up, you can release more water' and 'you can hold it back when you don't need it.' But the Lower Snake River dams don't work like that. Essentially, these four dams continuously release as much (or as little) water as happens to be flowing in from upstream. Their inability to store and generate large amounts of energy on demand means they are not the kind of 'very valuable assets' that Wright imagines.
Wright was not alone in his misstatements; he was responding to a question by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who implied that the Lower Snake River dams also provide 'flood control' and 'irrigation.' They don't. These four dams cannot store large volumes of water and therefore cannot meaningfully delay or prevent a flood. Recent studies also show there would be plenty of water for irrigation if the Lower Snake River dams were removed, and evaporation from these four reservoirs actually wastes enough water to grow 8,000 acres of apples each year.
Wright and Newhouse are relying on broad generalities about dams and hydropower that don't apply to the Lower Snake River. For instance, both expressed their view that dams and salmon can coexist. That can be true, in limited instances, but with respect to the Lower Snake River, our country's top federal and independent fisheries institutions found that un-damming is essential to recovering abundant salmon.
The benefits of the Lower Snake River dams are modest, but nevertheless real and important — especially to certain communities and people in eastern Washington who rely on them directly. These dams do produce some electricity, and that electricity is less harmful to our climate than burning fossil fuels (although it is definitely not carbon-neutral). These dams also facilitate some barge traffic, and a substantial amount of irrigation equipment would have to be moved or rebuilt if these dams were removed.
The Trump administration recently announced its opposition to replacing these services in order to facilitate un-damming the Lower Snake River, a move that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called 'a betrayal of our tribes and a tremendous setback for the entire Northwest.' Nevertheless, the states, tribes and organizations advocating for dam removal are dedicated to finding solutions and unlocking the Pacific Northwest's best chance to recover abundant wild salmon to support commercial, sport and tribal fisheries; honor tribal rights and treaties; and protect endangered orca whales.
How to replace the Lower Snake River dams, and their services, is one of the most important policy questions facing the Pacific Northwest. It is not going to be resolved by politicians repeating platitudes or misinformation. America deserves a secretary of Energy who understands the problem and supports solutions that work for everyone.
Miles Johnson is legal director at Columbia Riverkeeper.