Earth Equity News

Critics Contest Dam Plan in Northwest. By Colin Miner, NYTimes, October 9, 2009. "The Obama administration's new plan to show that salmon and hydroelectric dams can coexist along the Columbia and Snake Rivers is not all that different from the Bush administration's old plan, according to critics who want a federal judge to rule against it. 'It is a great disappointment to watch the new administration break its vow to restore science to its rightful place in the decision-making process,' Oregon Attorney General John Kroger wrote in a filing on Wednesday. Mr. Kroger's filing asks the judge, James Redden, to reject the government's plan, which would keep the eight contested hydroelectric plants that now produce power on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Oregon and Idaho. The government argues that the dams can coexist with salmon and steelhead that have become endangered or threatened, and that the dams should be breached only as a last resort… Oregon, along with the Nez Perce tribe and a coalition of environmental groups, wants Judge Redden to rule that the federal government has failed to live up to its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, the parameters of which require the government to make sure the dams do not endanger the 13 populations of salmon and steelhead that live in the rivers… The government has until Oct. 23 to file a rebuttal."