Hydroelectric Power: Radical Environmentalists Can't Make Up Their Minds

But on the other hand…   From 1994-2008 extreme environmentalists have been running “breach the dam” campaigns calling on the government to literally blow up Oregon’s multi-million dollar dams over concerns about fish in the Columbia and Snake rivers.  The fringe group “Save Our Wild Salmon” petitions Congress claiming that the “removal of the four lower Snake River dams is the best and most cost-effective way to recover wild salmon to abundance” and that they would deliver letters “in support of wild salmon recovery and lower Snake River dam removal.”  In 2008, radical fish advocates oppose a reasonable compromise proposal that would boost fish numbers, which was allegedly their goal.  The compromise was opposed by critics who said the plan depended too much on restoring habitat in tributaries to boost fish numbers, rather than the part of the river system the extremists demanded. 

The compromise would have spent hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars to save the fish the extreme environmentalists were concerned about; would have allowed the dams to continue to provide affordable energy and jobs to those living in the communities along the Columbia and Snake rivers; and would have continued to provide for the agricultural communities the dams support.  But the extremist groups immediately opposed the compromise because they could not get the fish in the part of the river system they wanted them in.