Efforts to breach the 4 decrease Snake River dams in Washington state threaten the way forward for the area’s energy provide, placing dozens of Northwest electrical cooperatives and their consumer-members in danger, NRECA CEO Jim Matheson advised a House panel Tuesday.
“Hydroelectric power generated by the Columbia River System is the foundation of the electric grid in the Northwest,” Matheson advised the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security.
“It is the key to electric reliability, economic prosperity and public safety. Put simply, hydropower is the reason why the lights stay on in the Pacific Northwest. Breaching or chipping away at the lower Snake River dams pulls a critical, dispatchable, carbon-free renewable resource out of the mix at a time when electric demand continues to grow.”
Matheson testified earlier than the panel a few controversial authorized settlement reached by the Biden administration, environmental teams, and tribal and state governments over the federal authorities’s operation of the decrease Snake River dams. Those dams provide hydropower to 55 co-ops in eight Western states served by the federal Bonneville Power Administration.
In a lawsuit filed in 2021, plaintiffs charged that the dams are threatening the survival of endangered salmon. The settlement helps breaching the dams and changing them with different varieties of renewable vitality.
Although it could take an act of Congress to really breach the dams, the settlement settlement undermines their operation, Matheson mentioned.
“While the dams are not physically breached by the agreement, the mandated spill and flow requirements chip away at the economic viability of the dams with the goal of making them uneconomical to operate,” he mentioned.
It gained’t simply be electrical energy suppliers who might be damage, Matheson added.
“It will adversely impact agricultural producers, the transportation sector and economically disadvantaged rural communities,” he mentioned.
For a long time, the hydropower supplied by the Columbia River System has fueled financial development within the area, Matheson mentioned.
“The region’s hydropower is a major attraction for economic investment in the Northwest,” he mentioned. “Companies locate their operations in the Northwest to take advantage of the reliable, affordable and carbon-free hydropower. Small family-owned businesses, electric vehicle manufacturers, agricultural producers and tech giants have all based operations in the Northwest because of hydropower.”
Although energy era throughout the BPA system contains wind, photo voltaic and biomass, these sources are dwarfed by hydropower, which makes up practically 80% of capability, Matheson mentioned.
The settlement envisions changing decrease Snake River dam hydropower with different renewables. Matheson raised considerations with this, noting that “hydropower is not interchangeable with wind or solar. Hydropower is a dispatchable resource, meaning it can be adjusted to meet demand and is ever-ready as a source of baseload power. Wind and solar, on the other hand, are unpredictable.”
Matheson additionally denounced the exclusion of co-ops and different electrical utilities within the settlement talks.
“No one from the electric consumer sector was included in the final closed-door negotiations that led to this settlement,” he mentioned. “The people that keep the lights on were purposefully kept in the dark…This settlement process sets a dangerous precedent of exclusion.”
Erin Kelly is a workers author for NRECA.
