Removing 4 Klamath River dams may save money, report finds

Los Angeles Times ^ | December 2, 2006 | Eric Bailey

[calcowgirl]

Setting the stage for a knockdown fight over the fate of four towering Klamath River dams accused of hammering salmon stocks and the West Coast fishing industry, a new government study released Friday has found that decommissioning the dams could cost $100 million less than operating them for another generation.

The economic analysis, ordered by the California Energy Commission in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Interior, should provide ammunition for Indian tribes, environmentalists and commercial fishermen eager to see the hydropower dams demolished to reopen more than 300 miles of river that have been blocked to migrating salmon for more than half a century.

"It's now official: The Klamath hydro project is an economic loser," said Steve Rothert of the group American Rivers.

The report, produced by a private consulting firm and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Technical Services Center, found that the cost of demolishing the dams and buying market-rate electricity to offset the lost hydropower over the next three decades would be far less than installing the vast infrastructure and improvements expected to be needed for the dams to win license renewal.

Though the hydro project historically has been able to cheaply deliver enough power for about 70,000 homes, new environmental rules would limit the project's unfettered operation, reducing electricity generation by 23%, the study found.

The cost of erecting fish ladders and other projects to help salmon get past the dams and cure water-quality problems would boost the 30-year cost of the project to between $230 million and $470 million, according to the report.

Removing the dams and buying replacement electricity over the next three decades would cost between $152 million and $277 million ... Depending on the price of power in the future, dam removal could save PacifiCorp ratepayers up to $285 million ...

[Jeff Head]

You are obviously unfamiliar with this isue to make such a statement. Go over to Klamath and spend some time with these farmers and research this issue and you will find you are wholly off base with such a comment as it applies to the Klamath Basin.

THE STAND AT KLAMATH FALLS

You can download an eBook of the entire experience for FREE HERE

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"I sure want to be pinged on any Klamath issues..."

Me, too, thank you very much.

Michael Frazier

[SierraWasp]

Well FReepers... Here you have it from the highest elected official on the CA downstream side of this issue!!! (see the map of dams in the above reply)

Marsh2 is a County Supervisor of Siskayou County... a huge county bordering OR in far northern CA. It's a beautiful place in which the EnvironMental Communutty recently put a huge amount of it's productive citizens on Welfare from what once was a thriving timber growing and harvesting agricultural industry!!!

[SierraWasp]

You betcha! I used to have a rebel tax preparer over in your county. He helped all the starving fishermen with their taxes. Had a lodge he called a church... well, you know that routine.

You been a FReeper a LONG time!!! Do you have a position on this issue yet?

[SierraWasp]

Oh! And most of all... Thank you for you service in support of your fellow Americans!!!

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"I'm kinda tired of millionaires on the dole"

I would say that you are ignorant as to what the situation is here in the West.

I've seen it called "The War on the West" and it is.

It leads back to the environazi idea of returning most of the land in the west to a state of wilderness and it has virtually nothing to do with corporate farming.

Michael Frazier

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"Do you have a position on this issue yet?"

I've watched the environazis destroy the timber industry and am watching them go after the fishing industry right now.

Mendocino County is covered by vineyards on land that used to be used to grow food, or was forest land, so that .com millionaires can have tax write offs. The environazis are silent about that.

The battles of the farmers against the enviros and the Feds are part of the reason I come here to the FreeRepublic.

Michael Frazier

[SierraWasp]

Fantastic! Another champion defensive back in the defensive "War on the west!" Welcome FRiend!!! Now you're watching them go after the MOST traditional occupation in America... Regular old potato farming!!!

If you watch real close, you'll see 'em trying desperately to pit the fishing industry against the farming industry. At the close of the last century they were pitting the American Indians and the Sucker Fish against the Klamath potato growers.

Tell me... What are you seeing them do in "going after the fishing industry right now?" Oh! and this is also a battle between the "red voting counties," versus the "blue voting counties! You seem to recognize this with your .communism millionaires and their tax write-offs comment. Yes, they certainly are silent about anything that makes their massive .communism contributors look bad!!!

[tertiary01]

Put me on your ping list too,... please!!!!

[calcowgirl]

I've got tons more to read from the FR archives but I'll add one to the Andy Kerr list. According to the Oregon Sec of State, Kerr is Secretary of the First Unitarian Church of Portland. I don't know about the Portland church, but it's sister church in Los Angeles was infiltrated by the communists during the Vietnam era (according to FBI files) and was the hub for many anti-war actions. The Portland church has teamed up with the communist infested National Lawyer's Guild and the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center in various actions, according to news reports. And apparently, they also lined up with Pacificorp a half decade ago:

Church labeled green sanctuary
Portland Business Journal - January 22, 2001

The First Unitarian Church of Portland met with PacifiCorp representatives and public officials Sunday to certify its church as a "green sanctuary."

The congregation has pledged to buy PacifiCorp power from renewable energy sources while taking steps to help reduce climate change. Sunday's celebration in the Daisy Bingham Room, 1011 S.W. 12th Ave., offered a series of speakers, information booths and refreshments.

There is a good background article on Andy Kerr posted at FR:

Andy Kerr Wages War on Growth
By Michelle Cole From the Portland Oregonian, June 4, 2000

The rest of the above thread is worth the read for any newbies to the subject, like me.

[calcowgirl]

Best read and critique the report as listed above and draw your own conclusions.

I intend to. I posted a link earlier in the thread:

http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=11197393 (304 pages, PDF file, 2.35MB)

[Iconoclast2]

This is the same trick perfected in the nuke context: saddle the projects with more and more and more and more and more unjustified costs, and then claim that you can blow up a productive asset and SAVE MONEY.

[SierraWasp]

Wonderful!!! Andy Kerr is also into Marijuana growing as the ideal thing to replace potato growing with in the Klamath Basin. So check into "Hemp" in relation to K. Falls in at least one of your searches.

Could you pick up people like tertiary01 who want to be pinged as I only do pings from memory and am liable to forget at my advanced age!!! OregonRancher asked you for pings back up the road a bit. Just wanted to make sure you caught his request. Our Prop 90 was like there Prop 37. Only thing is... Their Governor didn't "dis" it like our spithead Schwartzenfrauder did our Prop 90!!!

I know, I'm imposing on you, but that's what you git for being so danged GOOD!!!

[calcowgirl]

Not to be picky, but didn't you mean a goldmine ...

Uh... (make that "duh"). Yes, I meant Prop 84 is a virtual goldmine, LOL. Thanks.

[tubebender]

the issue here is, farmers needing their welfare? I'm kinda tired of millionaires on the dole

And we are fed up with Marxist aka Greens getting welfare in the form of our tax money buying millions of acres for their private use. At least farmers return something to us and they employ lots of people...

[calcowgirl]

Could you pick up people like tertiary01 who want to be pinged as I only do pings from memory and am liable to forget at my advanced age!!! OregonRancher asked you for pings back up the road a bit....

Yep. I'm collecting a list. You're not imposing, LOL.
I've added OregonRancher, brazzaville, and tertiary01, per their requests.

[SierraWasp]

Suuuuuuuuuuuuper!!! Thanks a bunch!!!

[dandelion]

Muy Excellente! You have found another very interesting link - Pacificorp working with Andy Kerr's church, which will buy "renewable energy" through the "Blue Sky" program - which is a partner for Andy Kerr's "Larch Company" - which provides "renewable energy". Hmmmm.

It merits further investigation...

[norton]

"new environmental rules would limit the project's unfettered operation..."

First you make it economically difficult to produce, then you stop the production because it is economically (too) difficult.

Democra(t)cy at work.

Oh, yeah, we'll find those more economical "market-rate electricity" sources when we need them...after the farmers shut up...after it's too damn late...then we'll find them.

Sure we will.

[SC Swamp Fox]

Please add me to the ping list. Thanks.