Newhouse: Biden Administration is Playing Politics with Central Washington's Future

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) released the following statement after the Biden Administration released their final report on “Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead” which calls for the removal of the four Lower Snake River dams with no new science to back up its claims.

To say I'm deeply disappointed by the Biden Administration’s report on “Rebuilding Interior Columbia Basin Salmon and Steelhead” is an understatement. While the report claims to support efforts to “ensure a reliable, affordable, and carbon-free energy supply,” it also explicitly calls for the removal of the four Lower Snake River dams. Let me be clear: there is no clean energy future in Washington State and throughout the Pacific Northwest without these hydroelectric dams.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), who failed to take input from the men and women who would be most impacted by its recommendations in their draft report back in July, have once again ignored the input and the voices of the majority of stakeholders across the Columbia Basin and the Pacific Northwest. The release of this report, and the Biden Administration’s process in compiling it, is a signal to Central Washington that the Biden Administration is playing politics with its energy future while ignoring recent data showing Spring and Summer chinook returns at higher levels than they have been in years. Factors like ocean conditions, predation, and others need to be considered and would be considered if this was a serious rulemaking process with an official public comment period, Congressional input, and coordination with other federal agencies who would be severely impacted by the outcomes this report suggests.

The silver lining here is that this is not a serious rulemaking process. Indeed, in their final report, NOAA acknowledges that the greatest threats to our salmon population are ocean and climate conditions, acknowledges that the report lacks “precise measures or quantitative estimates of the magnitude of biological benefit expected” from these recommended actions, and acknowledges that it has yet to identify “what factors are responsible for [the] low survival rates [of juvenile salmon and steelhead].” To make such drastic recommendations on the basis of such uncertainty is ludicrous, yet par for the course for this administration.

While the Biden Administration continues to ignore the facts of the matter, I will continue to work on effective, science-based solutions to protecting our salmon populations, maintain critical infrastructure, make advancements in fish passage, and support hatchery efforts as I have done throughout my time in Congress. And I will continue to educate my colleagues on the truth of this matter: dams and fish do coexist.

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