Newhouse Denounces Biden Administration for Backing Dam-Breaching Efforts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) released the following statement after the White House released a blog post outlining their biased efforts to look at breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams. 

“Monday’s blog post from the White House proves that they continue to only listen to one side of the argument and ignore the devastating impacts that breaching the Lower Snake River Dams would have on the people of Central Washington and the entire Pacific Northwest. It’s clear that they will continue to cherry pick opinions to force their ideological outcome—regardless of the facts.

Not only is their narrative peppered with falsehoods, but it completely ignores so many elements of this multi-faceted issue. It ignores not one but two multi-year, multi-million dollar studies implemented by both Republican and Democratic administrations that came to the conclusion that dam-breaching would not benefit our native salmon species. It ignores the fact that the state of Idaho quite literally poisoned their lakes and waterways systematically in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s to exterminate native salmon populations. It ignores that fish returns were clearly documented as declining long before the Lower Snake River Dams were even built. It ignores the increasing salmon returns on the Snake River. It ignores the hard work being conducted on the ground by our fish biologists, local conservation partners, tribal neighbors, and federal agencies that has made clear and significant progress. Most importantly, it ignores the feedback from the very men and women who rely on this critical infrastructure for clean, carbon-free energy throughout the region, water for their crops that feed the world, and clean, reliable transportation to move their goods to export markets. 

This is a deliberate attempt by the White House to perpetuate a dangerous narrative engineered by radical environmentalists and further propped up by Governor Inslee, Senator Murray, and Congressman Simpson. I call on them to stop catering to litigious special interest groups and start listening to what the people of Central Washington—and the science—have to say. I will always stand up for the people of the 4^th District, who I’m honored to represent. Their message and mine is clear: Dams and salmon coexist, and we will never stop fighting to protect our dams.” 

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