The deal, which took two years to negotiate, halted decades of lawsuits over the harm federal dams had caused to the salmon that had sustained those tribes culturally and economically for thousands of years.
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday pulling the federal government out of the deal.
The Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the hydroelectricity from federal dams, had more at stake than the rest of the agencies in the deal.
But some Columbia River hatcheries are nearly a century old.
His administration never delivered it, and Trump halted all the funds before eventually canceling them with this week’s order.
President Joe Biden’s administration made an announcement less than two years ago that was greeted by tribal leaders as an unprecedented commitment to the Native tribes in the Pacific Northwest whose way of life had been destroyed by federal dam construction along the Columbia River.
After two years of negotiations, the agreement put an end to decades of lawsuits over the damage federal dams had done to the salmon that had provided those tribes with hundreds of years of cultural and economic support. The government pledged to spend billions of dollars on alternative energy sources that the tribes would develop in order to clear four hydroelectric dams that were thought to be particularly detrimental to salmon.
Following the government’s repeated inability to protect the tribal fishing rights it vowed in treaties to protect, it was a noteworthy move.
Now, the deal is just another one of those unfulfilled pledges.
A memorandum removing the federal government from the agreement was signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday. A government-wide effort to restore abundant salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake rivers was put on hold by Trump’s decision, which also indicated that the government would no longer consider removing dams that interfered with the salmon’s free flow.
Tribes and environmental groups that have fought to protect salmon swiftly condemned Thursday’s action.
Gerald Lewis, the chair of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council, said in a statement that the Administration’s decision to end these commitments was reminiscent of the federal government’s long history of betraying promises to tribes. “This termination will significantly impede critical efforts to restore fisheries, remove certainty for hydro operations, and probably lead to higher energy costs and instability in the region.”. “”.
However, since nearly the moment the agreement was signed, the government’s dedication to the tribes had been eroding.
Under Biden, important provisions were already lingering. Following Trump’s election, his administration halted millions of dollars in funding, slashed the majority of the staff involved in salmon recovery, and accelerated the majority of the studies required by the agreement. After Biden’s pledge to give dam removal careful thought, Trump’s energy secretary Chris Wright replaced it with what he called “passionate support” for keeping the dams in place.
The White House task force chair who was in charge of putting the agreement into action resigned in April over what he perceived as Trump’s attempts to scrap almost everything he was working on.
The former chair of the Columbia River Task Force, Nik Blosser, told ProPublica and OPB that “untargeted, inefficient, and costly purges of federal employees were destroying federal agencies that were on the hook to do the work.”. “It is shameful that most things were on hold or paused when I left, including signed contracts. “.”.
In his White House statement, Trump referred to the Biden administration’s obligations as “onerous” and stated that he “continues to deliver on his promise to end the previous administration’s misplaced priorities and protect the livelihoods of the American people.”. “.”.
Reversing all executive actions that place excessive burdens on energy production and use is part of President Trump’s commitment to unleashing American energy dominance, the announcement stated.
However, experts warn that the choice may also have some unforeseen repercussions.
In an effort to “restore American seafood competitiveness,” Trump signed an executive order in April. However, by rescinding the Columbia River agreement, he has canceled millions of dollars in funding for programs that help fish populations in the ocean. On his first day in office, he signed a separate executive order to “unleash American energy dominance,” but he has since reneged on a pledge to develop new domestic energy sources that was made as part of the Biden salmon deal. Due to the impact on the endangered fish, judges have repeatedly shackled power production at hydroelectric dams, and this week’s action has sent federal agencies back to court.
Blosser posted on LinkedIn, “It’s tempting to comment at length on the absurdity of the President’s order, including the fact that what he says he wants — stability for power generation — is in fact put more at risk by this action.”. As an alternative, I will seek motivation from the powerful salmon, who continue to swim upstream even after they reach a waterfall. “”.
It’s back in court.
For over two decades, federal agencies had been losing lawsuits over the hydropower system before they started negotiating the Columbia River Basin agreement in 2021. Judge after judge mandated that the federal government use less water to generate electricity and instead allow more river water to flow through the floodgates of the dams, allowing fish to more safely ride the current past them.
The agreement with states and tribes promised to stop those lawsuits for ten years. Trump canceled that.
The agency with the greatest stake in the agreement was the Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the hydroelectricity generated by federal dams. “It provides operational certainty and reliability while avoiding costly, unpredictable litigation in support of our mission to provide a reliable, affordable power supply to the Pacific Northwest,” said Bonneville Administrator John Hairston when the government signed it. “.”.
In its most recent annual report, Bonneville attributed the losses in an otherwise challenging fiscal year to the agreement’s ability to allow it to boost hydropower production during periods of high electricity demand.
A key element of the agreement was the recognition of the area’s reliance on hydropower and the necessity of developing alternative energy sources prior to dam removal. There was no assurance that the dam would be removed.
Salmon activists have long called for the removal of four dams on the Snake River, and the Biden White House had promised to assist tribes in creating enough renewable energy sources to replace their output. A study on how to supply the area’s energy needs without compromising salmon was also planned by the administration.
The Biden administration did not carry it out. Even already-existing energy projects with tribal support encountered bureaucratic roadblocks. New energy sources were also abandoned when Trump took office and cut thousands of jobs at the Department of Energy.
The Biden administration was criticized by proponents of Columbia River dams, including the publicly owned utilities that purchase federal hydroelectricity, for excluding them from the negotiations that resulted in the agreement.
“I would like to express my gratitude to President (Trump) for taking decisive action to safeguard our dams,” Rep. Central Washington Republican Dan Newhouse made the following claim in a statement on Thursday. He claimed that by removing the dams, the Biden administration and “extreme environmental activists” would have jeopardized the stability of the electrical grid and increased energy costs.
However, even opponents of the Biden deal admit that they do not want the matter to go back to court because of the way that judges’ rulings have increased electricity costs. Bonneville must raise its electricity prices for utilities when it is unable to produce as much hydropower to sell but still needs to fund salmon hatcheries and habitat improvements.
Scott Simms, executive director of the Public Power Council, a nonprofit organization that represents utilities that buy federal hydropower, stated, “I hope that we avoid dam operations by injunction, because that doesn’t help anybody in the region.”.
Attorney Amanda Goodin of Earthjustice, who works for the environmental activists who signed the deal, stated that the Trump administration’s actions would necessitate going back to court.
“There is no basis for a stay without the agreement,” Goodin stated, adding that the agreement served as the foundation for the stay of litigation. “.”.
More fish will perish.
Trump’s decision to revoke the Columbia River agreement, according to the White House, demonstrates his “continual commitment to prioritize our Nation’s energy infrastructure and use of natural resources to lower the cost of living for all Americans over speculative climate change concerns.”. “”.
According to Nez Perce Tribe chair Shannon Wheeler, the Columbia River damage is not merely hypothetical.
According to a statement from Wheeler, “this action tries to hide from the truth.”. The Nez Perce Tribe has an obligation to speak out for salmon, and the reality is that salmon populations are currently going extinct. “”.
Fish hatcheries, which raise millions of baby salmon in pens before releasing them into the wild when they are old enough to swim to the ocean, are the only sources of commercial, recreational, and tribal subsistence fishing because wild salmon populations on the Columbia and its largest tributary, the Snake River, have been so low for decades.
Columbia River hatcheries provide an estimated half of the Chinook salmon that commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska catch in some years, making them essential to “restoring American seafood competitiveness,” as Trump sought to do.
However, some hatcheries along the Columbia River date back almost a century. Others’ funding has been so inadequate that thousands of baby fish have perished due to equipment malfunctions.
The number of hatchery salmon that survive to adulthood has decreased to such an extent that hatcheries have had difficulty gathering enough fish for breeding, endangering future fishing seasons, as previously reported by ProPublica and OPB.
In order to upgrade hatcheries throughout the Northwest, the Biden administration pledged about $500 million. The funds were never delivered by his administration, and Trump stopped them all before canceling them with this week’s order.
“Cutting off your nose to spite your face” is how one former Environmental Protection Agency Columbia River coordinator Mary Lou Soscia described the administration’s dismantling of salmon recovery initiatives. “”.
After more than 30 years at the agency, Soscia said, “We’re losing decades of accomplishments.”.
She stated that more fish will perish if the fish managers are not present to make decisions about the river in real time. Alternatively, more fish will perish and the restoration of the watershed will take a lot longer to complete due to a lack of funding. “.”.
