🌊🐟To breach or not to breach? Some are urging the breach of the Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams to help save the almost extinct Pacific Northwest salmon. This is a very complex (and heated) issue that will affect everyone in the region (and beyond).
Here are Five Fast Facts about the dam breach issue:
- 👍✔️Who Supports It? WA Gov. Inslee and Sen. Murray, backed by the Biden White House and government agencies like NOAA, are pushing for the breach (though the WH didn’t officially endorse the breach plan’s actions).
- 💰🔌What Might It Cost Us? A related report commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration found that the breach plan could result in annual cost increases in household electric bills by as much as 18%. On top of inflation?? #nothanks
- 🎣🚣A Little Gloss Here, A Little Skip There - City and port officials around the dams in question say their concerns were either ignored or downplayed in the plan. The cost was estimated at $10-27 billion, but that estimate ignored things like infrastructure to compensate for the missing dams and millions of dollars in economic activity from the fishing industry. Small details, you know.
- 👩💻😨A Second Opinion - Another study claims the breach plan misses the mark by assuming emerging energy technologies will be viable. It also claims the plan was created with “significant input” from people directly involved in a federal lawsuit seeking the dam breach. They warn of a devastating economic impact. This study puts the estimated cost at $42-77 billion. Hey, it’s only a difference of around 700%!
- 🌤️⚡Strange Bedfellows - It’s not a clear right/left political issue, either. Some environmental groups also oppose the breach plan because it didn’t consider the needed expansion of wind and solar production to replace the lost dams’ hydroelectric power. Even if the region doubles its renewable energy infrastructure, it still won’t meet the state’s energy greenhouse emissions goals for decades. This means an even bigger carbon footprint overall.
🔥Bottom line: There’s no simple solution here. It’s a multi-state, multi-industry issue with big costs and big effects on millions of Americans. While we love salmon as much as anyone and would love to protect that species, we focus on Paychecks here. As such, we’d lean toward preserving those as much as possible, even if it means we have to eat something else.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
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