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A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND
LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES
AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S
ASSOCIATIONS

VOL 3, NO. 6 6 FEBRUARY 2001
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BPA MAY SACRIFICE SALMON TO SAVE ITS BUDGET;
YUBA AND TRINITY RUNS TO BE SACRIFICED ALSO?: On 7
February, The Oregonian reported Bonneville Power Administration
(BPA) officials have told the Northwest Power Planning Council, the
federal agency created to assure the stability of the Northwest's power
systems, that it may be necessary to sacrifice salmon to keep BPA
financially solvent. BPA supplies power from the Northwest's federal
hydropower system at the cheapest rates in the nation, but a combination
of near-drought conditions and huge electricity price spikes triggered by
California's failed deregulation scheme have put the squeeze on BPA's
budget, making it hard for it to meet its upcoming U.S. Treasury
payments unless it generates more power. To do so, however, would
use water critically needed by this year's juvenile salmon runs to flush
them out to sea around the dams' turbines. BPA has already had to
declare one "energy emergency," allowing it to take more water than
salmon restoration measures ordinarily allow for five days running. In
its testimony to the Power Planning Council, BPA asked for an
exemption from salmon water flow requirements this year. Fishing and
conservation groups, however, pointed out that this was a false tradeoff,
and that power conservation measures should be able to help BPA
negotiate the crisis. Over the past 10 years nearly all of BPA's
significant conservation programs have been defunded. The Power
Planning Council has estimated at least 1535 megawatts of power could
be saved with readily available conservation measures. For more
information on BPA's proposed actions, see: http://www.oregonlive.com/
printer2.ssf?/news/oregonian/01/02/lc_51flows08.frame.

On the same day, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber proposed an
alternative to sacrificing the region's salmon runs in a Seattle speech
and in a letter to White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels,
suggesting that the federal government should simply defer payment of
BPA's $700 million upcoming Treasury payment in light of the current
crisis to allow it to purchase the needed electricity rather than depleting
reservoirs. "This country is awash in money," said Kitzhaber. "This isn't
going to break the bank." However, BPA officials and some elected
officials fear that such a move would give more momentum to efforts by
some in Congress to strip BPA of the huge federal subsidies that give
the Northwest by far the cheapest electrical power rates in the nation.
(See: http://www.oregonlive.com/printer2.ssf?/news/oregonian/
01/02/nw_51kitz08.frame.)

Hydropower managers are currently justifying drawing down
Columbia reservoirs below recommended levels because additional
flows would not only produce more power but would apparently benefit
downriver chum salmon (also listed under the Endangered Species Act)
though at the expense of several other economically more important
ESA-listed upper river chinook, sockeye and steelhead runs that are also
protected by Tribal Treaties. Bob Heinith of the Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission calls this new chum-friendly flow regime "just
a convenient excuse for power generation." Another option, which BPA
is just beginning to pursue, is to buy out power from some of its largest
industrial users, which in turn can pay laid off employees during times
of power crises. Some big power users have been buying cheap power
directly from BPA and then turning around and reselling it on the open
spot market for up to hundreds of times the price they paid for it.


BUSH'S ENERGY ADVISORY TEAM: A list of U.S.
President George W. Bush's new Energy Advisory Team has been
compiled and posted from public disclosure records, complete with brief
accounts of their past energy experience and their total political
donations. The makeup of the Advisory Team will be of interest to
fishing and conservation groups and fishery scientists given proposals to
waive fish protections in favor of power generation. The Advisory
Team, with a heavy majority of members from oil, gas and nuclear
power interests, can be seen at: http://www.presidentbushwatch.org/energyteam.html.