Bush administration asks 9th Circuit to junk judge's salmon order

AP ^ | 7/13/5 | DAVID KRAVETS

[SmithL]

Seattle (AP) --

The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to stop water from being purposely spilled over five Northwest hydroelectric dams, overruling a lower court's order that the release was necessary to help young salmon migrate to the Pacific.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to allow substantial flows to bypass energy generating turbines following a June 20 order by U.S. District Judge James Redden of Portland. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams' turbines as they headed to the sea hundreds of miles away.

"What the court has ordered is an untested experiment," Justice Department attorney Ellen Durkee argued to a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is being asked to overturn Redden. Durkee said Redden is "micromanaging the Columbia power system."

The appeals court appeared divided on whether it would uphold Redden and did not indicate when it would rule.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which sells the electricity generated by the dams, estimated spilling the water rather than running it through turbines will cost $67 million in lost revenue, which could be saddled on utility customers in the Northwest.

Appeals court Judge Richard Paez said Redden may not have been "micromanaging" and instead properly "determined that the status quo was harmful." Judge A. Wallace Tashima, however, suggested that Redden erred by not backing the National Marine Fisheries Service, which concluded that increasing water flows was not the best method to protect the threatened salmon.

"Why couldn't the court defer to the actions of the agency?" Tashima asked. "Is it your position that the court owes no deference to the agency?"

[SmithL]

Some judges feel that they owe a deference only to their own agenda.

[sharktrager]

9th Circuit?

Good luck!

Scared Bunny Blog
Not for the easily offended

[bill1952]

As if the 9th circus can be expected to do the correct thing.

The most overturned circuit in the land

[Paloma_55]

Just put fine nets downstream and we are talking about salmon fish sandwiches for months!

[republican2005]

the whole 9th circus needs to be impeached and replaced with real judges.

[deport]

Ninth Circuit

Year	Vacant	GWB 2	GWB 1	WJC 2	WJC 1	GHWB	RWR 2	RWR 1	JEC	RMN /GRF	RMN 1	LBJ	JFK /LBJ
current*	4	-	4	11	2	2	2	-	3	-	-	-	-
2004	4	-	4	11	2	2	2	-	3	-	-	-	-
2000	3	-	-	11	3	4	3	-	4	-	-	-	-
1996	8	-	-	-	3	4	6	-	6	-	-	-	1
1992	1	-	-	-	-	4	7	2	12	-	1	-	1
1988	3	-	-	-	-	-	7	2	13	-	2	-	1
1984	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	15	3	2	-	1
1980	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	15	3	4	-	1

Year	Vacant	Appointed by Republicans	Appointed by Democrats
current*	4	8	16
2004	4	8	16
2000	3	7	18
1996	8	10	10
1992	1	14	13
1988	3	11	14
1984	4	8	16
1980	-	7	16

[JSteff]

"Just put fine nets downstream and we are talking about salmon fish sandwiches for months!"

Or like they found on some of the TVA dams some very large catfish just below the turbines out flow pipes got to be monster sized.

Just swam there eating all that finely chopped fish food courtesy of the TVA

[Paloma_55]

Mmmmmmmm.... blackened catfish. Even better!