By Craig Rucker
Last week, the Trump administration affirmed its support for the four Lower Snake River hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest.
CFACT’s Conservation Country series, particularly our investigative report from September 2024, highlighted the benefits of this energy source, going directly to Ice Harbor Dam in eastern Washington.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said of his visit to Ice Harbor: “Hydroelectric dams have provided affordable and reliable electricity to millions of American families and businesses for decades. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, they will continue to do so!”
If you missed the original report, catch it HERE.
Our Lower Snake River Dam investigation uncovered some inconvenient “dam” truths. Dam breaching would lead to phasing out reliable hydroelectric power for electricity produced by intermittent solar and wind. Transportation of goods by barge would stop. And most “daming” of all, migratory salmon — an anti-hydro scapegoat — aren’t threatened by these power plants. Our report revealed marine mammals like voracious killer whales and sea lions pose a far greater threat.
In sum, the environmental trade-offs far outweigh the promised “benefits” of dam replacements.
CFACT is proud to have played a small but pivotal role in promoting hydroelectric power in the Northwest. However, there are numerous stories across America that also require attention. That’s where CFACT’s Conservation Country series comes into play.
Conservation Country specializes in shining a light on property rights, wildlife, and government abuses, as well as showcasing examples where things are done right — in other words, true conservation success stories.
Through this project, the CFACT team is fighting to change the narrative on terms like “environmental protection” by infusing it with sound science and free-market principles. With Team Trump in office, now is an especially good time to press the advance!
The Chinese finance the Left to sabotage US enterprise…so the Chinese have a clear field in which to win…
Likewise, when Jamestown and Plymouth went communist, it was because time-traveling agents of Brezhnev! And that kid became a plumber be cause of Mario.
Plymouth was not communist. It was small scale shared resources – more like an extended family given the numbers. Leaders were not self-appointed tyrants who stole resources from the others, but rather people who carried even more responsibility than others to helop everyone survive.
…with the charter and Governor. Uh-huh. Try another? This one has bells on it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090131233009/www.forbes.com/2008/11/27/thanksgiving-economy-history-oped-cx_jb_1127bowyer.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20150306153801/www.aier.org/research/real-meaning-thanksgiving-triumph-capitalism-over-collectivism
And this was after most of them died out, so the rest figured that better late than never and got their act together.
Stupid Democrats! All they do is destroy things. Dams, nations, freedom.
They should look into the alternative.
Replacing these 3,033MW combined generation sources with solar would require Millions of Panels and cover thousands of acres.
For example Topaz Solar Farm has 9,000,000 panels and covers 9.5 square miles with a nameplate capacity of 550MW But with a 26.6% Capacity Factor it’s like having 146 MW of generation. Using nameplate figures only you’re looking at 5.5 Topaz Solar Farms to replace current Snake River Hydro. This would require more than 49.5 million panels covering more than 52.25mi2 (the city of San Francisco covers 46.92 mi2).
Then there’s the issue of location. The Snake River sits at a higher latitude that Topaz Solar where Solar Panels tend to be far less effective, even in Summer, and less than Half Capacity in Winter (around 10% capacity) so if you could get 25% (similar to Topaz) in Summer you’d still be looking at needing more than Twice the capacity in Winter or covering SF, Daily City, Pacifica, San Bruno and Northern San Mateo) an area from the Golden Gage Bridge down to San Mateo with 99 Million Solar Panels
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But this only replaces the Hydro Energy from 10am until 2 pm. After that you’re hosed or installing massively expensive Battery Storage.
There is a large state park just upstream of the Ice Harbor dam where I have for many years have summer picnics and swim in the Snake while I see large grain barges dock right across the river from the well attended state park.
LINK
Leftism is bad for America should be defeated in the voting booths.
Or via voodoo. It’s more dramatic!
Only way to defeat leftist at the voting booth is to somehow educate the general population as the complete evil of the leftist agenda.
Trump managed it once, but the evil is very much on the rise again.
Upon stripping thin layer of paint, the above reads like this: «the only way to exorcise the Evil Ones is to make voodoo work, but this requires to somehow make the imaginary stupid masses as cool and clever as you are. But so far this somehow remains mysterious, thus for now all that can be done is to bask in being so much more cool and clever than the imaginary stupid masses».
See, this moral hipsterism looks pathetic even compared to mainstream commercial nihilism for edgy teens. Because at least satan-worshiping, suicide-advocating heavy metal subset of BS did not commonly come packaged with doubling down on kayfabe and offering lame excuses for not having killed themselves in ritual self-sacrifice!
Just look back a few years and what happened after the dams on the Klamath River.
This was “remarkable” California project.
All while shutting down failed hydrogen startups….
story tip
Bill Gates-backed Modern Hydrogen lays off most of its employees
Snake-River-dams-1024×853.png (1024×853)
The Dam pictured at the top of this post is the Brownlee Dam, 90 miles NNW of Boise, ID, with a 58 mile-long reservoir. It is not one of the four Lower Snake River dams involved in the removal controversy.
The issue relates to the Run-of-River dams between Lewiston ID and Tri-Cities WA. Run-of-river dams generate electricity without significant water storage, relying on the natural flow of the river. These dams are Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite.
Fish ladders bypassing the dams contribute very little to fish fatality compared to the miles of rocky rapids and predators that the salmon would encounter if the dam did not exist. Dam construction generally include fish ladders when migrating fish are an eco-issue.
And what if it was? There are much more straightforward ways to deal with it than «run in circles, scream and shout». Even the cost of fish elevators is trivial compared to the entire hydro infrastructure, never mind cost of replacing it with anything less convenient and more expensive.
It’s just another made-up crisis.
There have been cases where breaching the dam releases a whole heap of sediment, that may have collected “chemical”.
This can kill all aquatic and riparian life down stream.
Those dams on the lower Snake River produce about 70% of Idaho’s hydrogenerated electric energy. They are a (maybe even the) reason that Idaho power rates are among the lowest in the country. Meanwhile, people in Oregon want the dams breached for reasons unpersuasive to me.
It’s tough to share a river with crazy people.
The Hoover Dam is approaching 100 operational years and running normally at an average 3 GW output. Hydro is not base power, but, at 50% natural capacity factor, much better than wind at 25% and PV at 13% (averages). A PV or wind facility operates only 15-20 years before being torn down to rebuild, IF materials can be recycled, replaced and space exists.
Green energy facilities are forever – forever being built and rebuilt even larger.
Green facilities are rent-seekers’ dreams – forever.