Dam Task Force Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. A new taskforce, put together by the Biden Administration, appears to be looking for ways to breach four Lower Snake River dams.
I ask U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse, doesn’t the authority lie with Congress …
NEWHOUSE … “The decision to breach dams does lie with Congress. However, the operation of the dams, things can be done, decisions can be made that would functionally breach the dams.”
If the water levels were lowered enough, Newhouse asks what good are the dams? …
NEWHOUSE … “So, you can do things on the operational side of the dams to render them useless. So, that’s what we have to be careful of and that can be done without Congressional action.”
And, Newhouse says they don’t yet have acceptable alternatives in place …
NEWHOUSE … “To replace, you know, the power would take a tremendous amount of wind or solar or whatever’s acceptable. You know, they don’t want natural gas and they don’t want hydropower, but the bottom line is we more sources of power. We don’t need to be taking sources away.”
Newhouse says if the dams were gone, the number of trucks and train cars that would be needed to replace the river barges would have a tremendous impact on the environment.
And the irrigation for crops, that the dams enable, would also be gone.
