President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday revoking an executive action taken by former President Joe Biden related to the lower Snake River dams in Washington state, a move that has drawn praise from those advocating for their continued operations while criticized by environmentalists.
Located in Eastern Washington, the four lower Snake River dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which also operates them. Combined, the dams produce about 1,000 megawatts of electricity on average.
For years, there have been political debates in Washington as to whether or not the lower Snake River dams should be breached or demolished to help endangered salmon subspecies recover. Opponents of breaching the dams have argued that improvements to the fish passages have increased their survival rates moving through the dams, while advocates believe those rates are not sufficient to help the subspecies regain healthy population levels.
In 2023, Biden signed a memo that ordered the dam operations to be conducted “in a manner that provides equitable treatment for fish and wildlife with the other purposes for which the Federal dams are managed and operated.”
The memo revoking Biden’s order claims that this “placed concerns about climate change above the Nation’s interests in reliable energy resources,” adding that it required “the Federal government to spend millions of dollars and comply with 36 pages of onerous commitments to dam operations on the Lower Snake River.”
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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