Newhouse Blitzes Biden Administration’s Dam-Breaching Efforts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) joined Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Steve Daines (R-MT) and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Russ Fulcher (R-ID), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), and Cliff Bentz (R-OR), in sending letters to 10 agencies within the Biden Administration requesting information on the agencies’ involvement in the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)’s efforts to breach the lower Snake River dams.

The series of letters presses CEQ for answers on their current stakeholder engagement sessions and asks federal agencies that have a stake in Lower Snake River dam operations about their role in CEQ’s process.

“The Federal Columbia River Power System comprises 31 hydroelectric projects in the Columbia River Basin and provides approximately one third of the electricity used in the Pacific Northwest, as well as critical flood risk management, irrigation, and navigation benefits,” wrote the lawmakers. “The Lower Snake River Dams are not only critical to grid reliability in the Pacific Northwest, through fish passage adaptations, they achieve 96 percent passage survival for juvenile yearling Chinook salmon and steelhead smolts at each dam.”

They continued, “We share the goal of recovering threatened and endangered fish species in the Columbia River Basin, and we should be encouraged by recent returns on the Lower Snake River. Snake River Spring Chinook returns have increased since 2019, with 2020 returns up 55 percent and 2021 returns up 27 percent.”

The lawmakers concluded, “Given the critical role the entire Federal Columbia River Power System plays in powering the Pacific Northwest, providing flood risk management, irrigation, and navigation benefits, as well as CEQ’s focus on how breaching the Lower Snake River Dams may aid in fish recovery, we request answers in writing by no later than May 1, 2022.”

You can read the letters and view the questions to each agency at the following links:

• Letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality
• Letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries
• Letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Letter to the U.S. Department of State
• Letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation
• Letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
• Letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Letter to the U.S. Department of Energy
• Letter to the Bonneville Power Administration