Can’t keep up with the dam news? I don’t blame you!
Earlier this year, I argued the case of what to do with the four Lower Snake River dams is a litmus test. When it comes to climate change action, it’s one of the northwest U.S.’ biggest climate wake-up calls.
And late last week, we got a major development with an agreement between the Biden administration, the states of Oregon and Washington, and four tribes.
It’s called the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI).
What the Agreement Does
For decades, environmental organizations and tribes have fought the federal government’s dams in court. This agreement pauses that fight for 10 years.
In exchange for the pause, the federal government is promising upwards of $1 billion of investment over the next 10 years to restore salmon and other native fish populations to “healthy and abundant” levels. Those funds will go to:
- Building one to three gigawatts worth of renewable energy infrastructure to offset the energy created by the four dams.
- Restoring salmon and their habitat, with a focus on allowing tribes and states to direct the money. The agreement specifically mentions addressing recommended but underfunded fishery updates.
- Studying how to replace the economic impacts that dams create in the transportation, irrigation, and recreation industries.
What It Doesn’t Do
Breach the dams, or set a date for doing so. However, Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Shannon Wheeler said it is a “pathway” to breaching. Several involved environmental nonprofits said the same thing.
It also doesn’t upset the fact that, as several Republican legislators pointed out last month, Congress alone has the power to breach the dams.
