A loss for Northwest tribes, salmon and energy

By The Herald Editorial Board

The Trump administration last week scuttled an agreement between federal, state and tribal governments, meant to end decades of court litigation over tribal treaty rights and the survival of Columbia Basin salmon stocks, while aiding the growth of clean energy sources.

It’s a move that contradicts executive orders President Trump signed just months ago to restore “American seafood competitiveness” and “unleash American energy dominance,” and is all but certain to send the federal government back to court to defend itself against a coalition of four Northwest Indian tribes, Washington state and Oregon, environmental, energy and other groups, which two years ago had signed the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement with the Biden administration.

The agreement suspended litigation by the National Wildlife Federation and the “Six Sovereigns” — the tribes and states — in return for federal commitments to restore the Columbia Basin and assure plentiful fishing in perpetuity, including a promise of at least $1 billion in federal funding and efforts, including a $300 million investment in salmon habitat restoration by the Bonneville Power Administration, which administers the Snake River and other Columbia basin dams. Significantly, much of the money was to go toward the expansion of 1 to 3 gigawatts of electricity from tribally managed clean-energy projects, including solar, wind and energy storage.

At the heart of the earlier lawsuits — if not the agreement — was the fate of four Washington state hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, which while producing some of the Northwest’s abundant electrical energy also are responsible for blocking some salmon from their reproductive cycle and threatening the health of fish.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-a-loss-for-northwest-tribes-salmon-and-energy/