Environmental Groups Seek Sale Of Bpa Local Chapters Don’t Rule Out Joining The Push
Environmental groups around the nation want the federal government to sell the Bonneville Power Administration to raise money for the government and restore the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Northwest chapters of those groups said they aren’t quite ready to demand the BPA be sold.
But they may be in the future if the federal government doesn’t take the steps they say are necessary to restore salmon in the region’s rivers.
The sale of the BPA and other federal agencies that sell power from federal dams is proposed in a new report on government programs that the groups say cost taxpayers too much money and hurt the environment.
The “Green Scissors Report,” funded by such groups as the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Physicians for Social Responsibility and National Audubon Society, was released Wednesday in Spokane and elsewhere around the country.
Selling the BPA - which the region’s congressional delegation has long fought and critics say would raise power rates around the Northwest - is “a legitimate proposal,” said Mark Solomon of the Inland Empire Public Lands Council.
“It’s not so wrong-headed that we need to leave our name off the (Green Scissors) report,” said Jim Baker of the Sierra Club’s Northwest Salmon Campaign.
If BPA continues to support expensive salmon restoration projects that local environmental groups believe don’t work, regional chapters of those national groups may join the call to sell the agency.
The report also criticizes a proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a system of barges and bypasses to move young salmon around the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. Baker said the federal agencies should instead try to “restore our river ecosystem.”
Their preferred option is to flush large amounts of water down the rivers at key times, and breach some of the dams. That strategy is opposed by barge operators, irrigators and some other commercial users of the rivers.
That option doesn’t yet have a price tag and needs more study, Baker said. In the meantime, the Corps of Engineers should not spend an estimated $425 million on the barge and bypass system, the groups say in their report.
Other targets of the report include:
The U.S. Forest Service program that builds roads on federal lands leased by timber companies. The environmental groups, which have long criticized that practice, want Congress to cut all funding for the program, which last year totaled $42 million.
The White House is expected to announce a moratorium on building roads on certain federal lands as early as today. Republicans from the Northwest are gearing up to fight President Clinton on that plan.
Mining leases on federal lands allowed under the 1872 Mining Act. The environmental groups say mining companies should be required to pay royalties and post bonds to guarantee cleanup of the land after mining ceases.
Free or low-cost use of national parks by film production companies. Film companies, which now pay only for ranger supervision and damage mitigation, should pay fees just like private citizens visiting the park, the groups say.
, DataTimes