Risch Statement on Northwest Energy Planning Project

BOISE, Idaho - U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) released the following statement upon the launch of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Regional Energy Planning Project.

"The last thing Idahoans need is the Biden-Harris administration forcing its extreme mandates on our energy planning, transmission, and infrastructure decisions. This is another thinly veiled attempt to push for breaching the lower Snake River dams. We need more reliable, baseload power, not less. Fortunately, this administration has absolutely no authority to remove these dams. That power rests with Congress alone. These dams aren't going anywhere."

Risch has been a staunch defender of the lower Snake River dams and introduced the Northwest Energy Security Act to protect the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.

In 2022, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a draft report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advocating for breaching at least one of the Lower Snake River dams to improve salmon populations. It also published a study commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) laying out scenarios to replace power generated by the dams.

Following four years of comprehensive scientific study of the Columbia River System Operations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration released a record of decision in September 2020 affirming the four dams' critical importance to the region.

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