Dam removal: Saving orcas presents a false choice
Re: “It’s time to remove Snake and Puyallup River dams,” (TNT, 9/27).
Emily Pinckney’s op-ed presents readers with an odd Hobbesian choice for saving the orcas in our region.
It is a false choice because she ignores the cost of dam closures and reduced hydropower capacity and flexibility, and she omits that power planners in the Pacific Northwest recognize salmon recovery is a top priority.
Power planners who use the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) are committed to the “4-H Approach” (Hydropower, Habitat, Harvest and Hatchery) that integrates economics, science, power planning and environmental rigor.
Low-cost, clean hydropower is smart environmental economics and protects Tacoma’s low-income power customers from retail rate increases. Tacoma’s customers deserve “firm” power supplies, not the unreliable behavior of renewables for grid operations.
Furthermore, the US Army Corps of Engineers concluded in July 2020 that Snake River dams should remain open because the discounted costs of closure outweighed the discounted benefits.
Rivers, like the op-ed writer’s musings, behave in a meandering motion. Public policy, however, must be a function of stable, rational thinkingWashington.
Bill Dickens, University Place
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Dam removal: Saving orcas presents a false choice."