Doesn't matter particularly who owns or operates these dams. Priest Rapids and Wanapum are non-federal dams that operate under a federally issued license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If Pacificorp and the Yaks prepare a license application that is more in the overall public interest than Grant PUD does, then it would only make sense for FERC to issue the new license to the competing applicant. Of course, if the competing applicant gets the new license, they have to pay the original owner the current market value of the project, and that could result in a lawsuit just to determine that.

These two dams are very valuable power producers when measured against their capital and operating costs. However, Grant PUD hasn't been particularly cooperative in mitigating the fishery impacts of these dams. And BTW, these two are major fish killers on the mid-C, so owner/operators who are more amenable to fully mitigating project impacts on fisheries might better serve the public interest. The dams would still produce a hell of a lot of power, at a very slightly higher cost. Fisheries mitigation isn't cheap, but it is a pretty small % of the cost of energy. Unmitigated projects are stealing from the public in my opinion.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.