Power bills could jump 17% under proposal to help salmon at WA dams, feds say

A requested emergency order to change operations at Columbia and Snake river hydroelectric dams would raise electricity costs 17% for many Northwest customers, according to the Bonneville Power Administration.

States and groups seeking help for endangered salmon and steelhead in a decadeslong federal lawsuit have asked the court for an emergency order to spill more water over eight dams, lowering the reservoirs behind them.

The changes are needed to protect endangered salmon and steelhead, say those requesting the temporary order, including the state of Oregon, conservation, fishing and clean energy groups. The state of Washington supports the filing.

According to Earthjustice, spilling more water over dams would allow more juvenile fish to pass over the dams instead of through hydroelectric turbines, and the lower reservoir levels would shorten the time salmon spend migrating through slower and warmer water behind dams.

Hidden double-digit tax

But the Public Power Council, a defendant in the case, says that those changes have no proven benefits to fish and would drive up electricity costs by $152 million to $169 million annually.

The Public Power Council represents nearly 100 consumer-owned electric utilities across the Pacific Northwest, including in the Tri-Cities.

“The litigation is like a hidden double-digit tax on electricity customers that threatens real harm to lower-income families, schools, farms and businesses without providing any proven benefits to salmon,” said Kurt Miller, chief executive officer of the Northwest Public Power Association. NWPPA represents 150 community-owned electric utilities.

He made the statement after the Department of Justice filed its response Monday night to the request for a preliminary injunction to change dam operations for the four lower Snake River dams in Eastern Oregon and four Columbia River dams downriver from the Tri-Cities.

Response included BPA analysis

The BPA analysis warned that the proposed operational changes would make frequent grid emergencies, such as energy shortages and rotating blackouts, inevitable.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, with the support of Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, has initiated litigation that “threatens the very citizens who they were elected to represent,” Miller said.

The Public Power Council said the changes would eliminate about 2 million megawatt-hours of hydropower production each year while increasing carbon emissions as the lost hydropower is replaced primarily by natural gas generation.

“These losses come at exactly the wrong time,” said Scott Simms, chief executive director of the Public Power Council. The Pacific Northwest is facing rapid growth in demand for electricity, he said.

The amount of water spilled over hydro dams has already been increased, and more spill would yield only small, incremental improvements for fish, said Andrew Deines, managing scientist at Exponent, whose opinion was included in court documents opposing the preliminary injunction.

Northwest Power Planning Council

The Public Power Council is asking the federal court to encourage a collaborative path forward.

“After more than two decades of litigation, it should be clear that court-ordered operational mandates are not a durable solution,” Simms said.

“The region needs a negotiated approach that support salmon recovery, respects tribal treaty rights, protects grid reliability and keeps power affordable for the people of the Northwest.”Columbia and Snake River dams.

Trump administration ended agreement

The request for a preliminary injunction was filed in October after the Trump administration ended the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement with tribes and the states of Oregon and Washington that was signed by the Biden administration.

The 2023 agreement put the decadeslong federal case on hold, while removal of four lower Snake River dams in Eastern Washington was studied and the federal government paid for salmon recovery and tribal renewable energy projects.

Signed by the Nez Perce and other tribes in the basin, the agreement was seen by salmon advocates as a breakthrough in their decadeslong effort to recover wild salmon and steelhead that are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Opponents of the agreement called it a road map to removal of the lower Snake River dams.

The proposed preliminary injunction would require emergency conservation measures in addition to changes to dam operations.

They include removing passage barriers slowing the migration of Tucannon River spring chinook in Eastern Washington, as well as increasing federal efforts to control predators like invasive walleye and some birds that prey on salmon and steelhead.