In January 2025, Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) and Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) proposed legislation that would doom Idaho’s wild salmon and steelhead by locking in illegal operations at federal dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. The proposed bill, entitled the Northwest Energy Security Act, is backed by several other Congressional Republicans, including Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID). 

This legislation is not new. Risch and Newhouse proposed a similar bill in 2023 and 2024, and have backed legislation for several years in an effort to turn back the clock and ignore major scientific findings made since 2020 and the continued decline of wild salmon since. 

  • Salmon and steelhead have been in trouble for years — they’re even more in danger now. Wild Spring/Summer Chinook, which were already at critically low levels a few years ago, have declined even more. Sockeye salmon have had to navigate superheated water in dam reservoirs in both 2021 and 2024, with most fish completing their journey home via truck, rather than in the river. The stagnant reservoir water has fostered toxic algae outbreaks in the lower Snake, presenting a danger to fish, people, and pets. More recent studies by the Nez Perce Tribe have shown that many individual populations of Snake River salmon and steelhead are below critical near-extinction thresholds, putting their recovery in jeopardy. Now is the time to do more to protect salmon, not less.
  • A scientific consensus has been reached: to restore Snake River salmon, the dams must be breached. A 2022 scientific paper from the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency that manages salmon and steelhead, found that the “centerpiece action” for restoring Snake River salmon and steelhead is removal of the four lower Snake River dams. This conclusion followed a similar statement from the American Fisheries Society, which called for dam removal in 2023 based on “the body of scientific evidence.” 
  • A region-wide study found that federal dams have caused lasting damage to Northwest Tribes and robbed them of their cultural and economic resources. The Tribal Circumstances Analysis summarized just a portion of these harms. Dams have killed the vast majority of the Columbia’s wild anadromous fish, leaving some runs at less than 1% of their historical populations. Dams flooded ancient fishing sites and villages, including some of the longest-continuously-inhabited places at Celilo and Kettle Falls. These truths have been long-known, but never fully acknowledged by the federal government until 2024. Most meaningfully, agencies agreed that they would consider these harms and the need to repair them in future decisions about the hydroelectric system. 
  • A different study showed that all irrigation from the lower Snake reservoirs could be adjusted or replaced when the dams are removed. In the first truly comprehensive look at the situation, the Bureau of Reclamation and Washington Dept. of Ecology jointly concluded that all irrigation and water supply systems near the lower Snake River could be readily altered or replaced to function in a free-flowing river. First, they concluded that there will be plenty of water in the Snake to support agriculture year-round, even through climate change-induced drought. Second, the analysis found that only 10% of nearby wells would need modification after breach. Third, they laid out a set of alternative infrastructure projects that would ensure all agricultural, municipal, and industrial users that rely on the Snake River would be able to continue. 

By proposing this legislation, Risch and Newhouse are willfully ignoring both scientific consensus and analysis done since 2020. They are perpetuating Tribal injustice. They are being inaccurate about what benefits the dams do and do not provide: Sen. Risch’s press statement on the bill makes reference to the “flood risk management” provided by the dams, even though these four dams do not control floods and are not authorized for that purpose. 

Risch, Newhouse, and their co-sponsors are not even trying to find solutions to Idaho’s long-running salmon crisis. While Tribes, states, and stakeholders have united to study how to replace lower Snake River dams’ services to ensure that communities that currently rely on these services are not harmed when these dams are removed, and restore salmon across the Columbia River Basin, this bill’s only goal is to short-circuit that regional progress. The bill’s backers are stuck in the past, ready to risk the future of both salmon and industry on dam operations they know will never create abundant fish. 

We look forward to productive conversations with all members of Congress and the Administration about finding true, comprehensive solutions to the problems facing fish, our energy and transportation systems, and to all communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on Northwest rivers. 

Take action today and tell the bill’s co-sponsors that their proposal misses the mark in solving problems for endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead. 

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