WASHINGTON, D.C. – (KGMI.com) The U.S. government is willing to help build enough new clean energy projects to replace the hydropower generated by four controversial dams on the Snake River.
The news was reported after a Biden administration document was leaked on Wednesday, November 29th.
Still, Congress would have to agree before any of the Lower Snake River dams are removed, and that’s unlikely to happen in the near future.
The document is a draft agreement to uphold 168-year-old treaties with four tribes that preserved their right to harvest fish in the river.
The Columbia River Basin was once the greatest salmon-producing river system in the world, with at least 16 stocks of salmon and steelhead.
But today, four are extinct and seven are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
There has been growing recognition across the U.S. that the harms some dams cause to fish outweigh their usefulness.
Utility and business groups called the draft agreement the greatest threat for the region, saying dam breaching would hurt the region’s ports and farmers and could raise electricity prices.
