Re: “Salmon recovery: NPPA ad not the whole story” (Oct. 12, Northwest Voices):
The advert co-sponsored by Northwest Public Energy Affiliation and our business companions has been criticized for not telling the “complete story.” In a method, that’s true — however not for the explanations the letter author suggests.
Utility representatives earnestly requested inclusion in negotiations surrounding the 2023 Memorandum of Understanding between federal businesses and plaintiffs in long-running litigation over the Columbia and Snake River hydropower system. Ostensibly, within the identify of salmon restoration, that litigation seeks to breach the dams that present dependable, inexpensive and clear hydropower to thousands and thousands of Northwest residents.
Regardless of repeated outreach to the Biden administration and the governors of Oregon and Washington, utility representatives had been excluded from the negotiations. We got just a few days to answer an “settlement in precept,” and our suggestions was mirrored within the closing model — one which anti-hydropower teams now name a “pathway to dam breaching.”
That exclusion — not our advocacy — is what undermined the settlement. Our advert was a name for inclusion, not obstruction. We’re urging the governors to satisfy straight with utilities earlier than one other flawed end result happens.
Collaboration — not exclusion — is the trail ahead. Let’s work collectively to search out actual options that serve all of the folks of the Northwest.
Kurt Miller, Vancouver, CEO and government director, NWPPA
