Mou contract template12/30/2023 ![]() I’m not sure of an exact number, and how much of it is going to be federal. How much money are we talking about, in terms of what the federal government says it might put towards new energy projects if these dams were taken down?īarker: Well, it’s going to be billions of dollars. We have seen those kinds of ideas already out of Washington where Senator Murray and Governor Inslee have already said, “We gotta do this.” But we need to make sure everybody’s whole. But I do think that when the train starts leaving the station, we’re going to start seeing some good ideas. So that would be the main thing.īut I gotta believe that back in 2021, when Representative Mike Simpson from our state came out and proposed breaching the four dams and making everybody whole, he asked everybody, “Tell us what we can do, what we should do?” And unfortunately, he didn’t get very many people from the energy industry or essentially the other side, to step up and tell their ideas. And since none of us have really seen the big picture of it yet, we don’t know, but this plan means this administration is going to support that, and trying to expand it, and there already has been federal funds for that. And they’re trying to do it with a network of tribes across the Northwest. ![]() The Nez Perce, they have already built a solar array with batteries and they’re trying to turn that into enough power to offset the four lower Snake dams. Where would that energy come from if the dams were breached?īarker: Well, the first place where they’ll come from will be…under this proposal, as I understand it, we’ve already seen it start. Miller : These dams currently provide power to something like three quarters of a million homes. The economics have been there, but culture and politics has not caught up. But I think what is clear is that the Biden administration is going to continue to show the support it has for breaching the four lower Snake dams, which science has long supported. This is saying that we’re going to breach the four lower Snake dams.”Īnd we really don’t know what this thing says completely. Well, then this settlement leak comes out and the folks on the other side - the energy and farm and irrigation and shippers - came out and released it and said, “Oh no, this is terrible. And so they put it out, and then we never heard anything except that they had given themselves a little more time, until December 15, to announce if there was an agreement. So they’ve been working to try to reach a settlement in the latest version. What are the broad contours of it?īarker: Well, this is a settlement of a court case that goes back, on and off, since 1993, based on the Endangered Species Act and the federal government has lost every single time this case has been brought up. ![]() ![]() Miller : I want to start with this agreement, this leaked draft. Longtime Idaho journalist Rocky Barker joins us to talk about how we got here and what this leak could mean. The draft outlines what the federal government might do in terms of habitat restoration and alternative energy development, if the four dams on the Lower Snake River are removed. The coalition is suing over the dismal condition of salmon on the Snake River. It came in the form of a leaked draft of an agreement between the federal government and a coalition of environmental groups and sovereign Tribes. There is some big news about the future of electricity, irrigation and salmon in the Columbia River Basin last week. Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.ĭave Miller : From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. We talk to longtime Idaho journalist Rocky Barker about how we got here, and what the leak could mean for a future agreement. The Snake River is the main tributary of the Columbia River, flowing from Idaho and eastern Washington into Oregon. The agreement also revealed federal government commitments to investing in habitat restoration and alternative energy development on tribal lands. Those talks are tentatively scheduled to reach an agreement by December 15, but last week, a leaked draft agreement showed that the federal government may agree to take down the four lower Snake River dams. A coalition of environmental groups and tribes who are suing the federal government over the condition of salmon on the Snake River have been in talks with the government for over a month.
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