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- By Chez Oxendine
- Energy | Environment
President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. government from an agreement between two states and multiple tribal communities to protect salmon and support alternative energy resources in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Basin.
Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday withdrawing the government from a Dec. 14, 2023 agreement to restore salmon, steelhead and other native fish harmed by federal hydroelectric dams across Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Trump’s memorandum — titled “Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin” — could hamper burgeoning efforts in the area to restore ailing fish populations and develop a renewable energy sector.
The 2023 agreement was meant to pour more than $1 billion in new federal investments for wild fish restoration into the Columbia River Basin over the next decade, along with clean energy projects on tribal lands.
Jennifer Rouda, founder and CEO of Native-serving energy consultancy 7Skyline, said revoking the agreement would halt “one to three gigawatts” of renewable energy development in the Oregon-Washington region.
“Harming this agreement hurts the whole region’s energy transition,” Rouda told Tribal Business News. “There’s been so much progress since we got this momentum started in 2023, and this short circuits the whole process.”
The agreement stems from a deal between the federal government under President Joe Biden, four Northwest tribal communities, the states of Washington and Oregon, and several environmental groups. The agreement, also called the “Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement” or the “6 Sovereigns Agreement,” was designed to resolve decades of legal battles over the impact of federal hydroelectric dams on salmon and other native fish in the Columbia River Basin.
The deal aimed to improve fish recovery and renewable energy production by funding tribally run fish hatcheries, supporting efforts to replace the output of some lower Snake River dams with renewable energy and streamlining environmental reviews.
There are more than 400 dams in the Columbia River Basin, with the four Lower Snake River dams in Washington state being the most controversial. Built between 1961 and 1975, the Snake River dams provide hydroelectric power, navigation and irrigation but have been blamed for decimating salmon populations that once numbered in the millions. Salmon must navigate the dams during their journey from the ocean to their spawning grounds, and many die in the process.
Trump attributed his administration’s revocation of the deal to “onerous” and “misguided” pushes to breach and reduce the output of the hydroelectric dams, according to a White House fact sheet.
The White House estimated that breaching the hydroelectric dams would have eliminated over 3,000 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity. Rouda said renewable energy projects underway in the region would have topped 3 gigawatts — equivalent to 3,000 megawatts.
Without the agreement in place to support that development, tribes face uncertainty that could hamper their projects, Rouda said. Those projects range from solar farms to geothermal energy development.
“This sets us back many years,” Rouda said. “Losing the agreement really undermines the tribes’ energy sovereignty, broadly speaking. If tribes aren’t sure they’re going to get the support they need to develop their energy programs, it undermines those programs.”
The four tribal communities in the 6 Sovereigns Agreement are the Nez Perce, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, Yakama Nation and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Yakama Nation Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis said Trump’s revocation of the agreement "jeopardized" energy, transportation and water stability in the region.
“The administration’s decision to terminate these commitments echoes the federal government’s historic pattern of broken promises to tribes and is contrary to President Trump’s stated commitment to domestic energy development,” Lewis said in a statement. “The Yakama Nation is deeply disappointed by this unilateral decision to terminate the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, particularly without prior consultation.”
Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, said Trump's decision denies the truth about salmon extinction.
“This action tries to hide from the truth. The Nez Perce Tribe holds a duty to speak the truth for the salmon, and the truth is that extinction of salmon populations is happening now,” Wheeler said in a statement. “People across the Northwest know this, and people across the nation have supported us in a vision for preventing salmon extinction that would at the same time create a stronger and better future for the Northwest.”
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs wrote in a statement that the agreement would have helped improve fish habitats and provide financial support for area hatcheries. Damaging fish populations further would violate rights guaranteed by an 1855 treaty between the Warm Springs tribes and the federal government.
“The RCBA was a commitment from the United States government to honor its obligations to ensure healthy, thriving fish stocks … and was the result of years of coordination and collaboration among the regions’ sovereigns and fish managers,” the tribes wrote in a joint statement. “We hope that the federal government recognizes the importance of these agreements and will work with our nations to identify new ways to collaborate to improve the health of our fisheries.”
Environmental groups that have led litigation against federal agencies over dam operations said they would continue fighting in court. Amanda Goodin, an attorney with Earthjustice, said in a statement that the Trump administration was “turning its back on an unprecedented opportunity to support a thriving Columbia Basin — and ignoring the extinction crisis facing our salmon.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said she would work with the states and tribes to evaluate their next moves.
“Exinction is not an option for these iconic fish, and we will do what we can to avoid that. This includes Oregon’s continued commitment to implement the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative that we crafted with our sovereign partners,” she said in a statement.
Groups representing utilities and rural electric cooperatives supported Trump's decision. Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said preserving the dams was crucial for reliable electricity.
“As demand for electricity surges across the nation, preserving access to always-available energy resources like hydropower is absolutely crucial,” Matheson said in a statement.
Brian Edwards provided additional reporting.
