Dear Member,

If you ask your spouse, a friend, neighbor, or a stranger their opinion of hydroelectric power, their response will likely be favorable.  Increasingly, the overwhelming view of citizens in the Pacific Northwest is that the hydroelectric resource the region has depended on for decades is viewed as a premier source of clean, renewable and low-cost energy.  Further, most people oppose the removal of dams and especially support keeping in place the dams on the lower Snake River.

Those views and others were recently expressed in a poll of 700 registered voters in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.  Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, a well known Portland polling firm, conducted the public opinion poll in March.  Some of the results of the poll were:

•    In addition to hydropower being viewed as clean and renewable, 70 percent of respondents recognize it does not contribute to greenhouse gases and climate change.

•    More than 67 percent of Northwest voters recognize the importance of the Snake River dams to the region’s power system.  In Idaho this view was 79 percent – a view that has changed little since opinion research began in 2005.

•    Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they would be concerned if their electricity rates increased 5 percent every couple of years solely to improve salmon runs.  More than half were concerned (34 percent very concerned) with even a 2.5 percent increase in their power bills for this purpose.

These opinions are important as we anxiously wait for a decision from a federal judge concerning a plan designed to restore salmon runs.  The plan that is known as the Biological Opinion, or BiOp, would determine how the federal hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers would be operated during the next 10 years to enhance salmon and steelhead.  The BiOp includes proposals from the Obama administration.  Lane Electric and most other electric utilities in the region support the BiOp as the best and most comprehensive plan for salmon recovery.

The BiOp comes with a price tag.  If the judge approves the BiOp in its current version, the cost will be about $1 billion a year; mostly reflected in the electricity rates charged by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).  That is a lot of money, but much less than what some interest groups are requesting in changes to the BiOp.  Changes the judge is considering.

Aware of the prevailing opinion of customers, combined with the tremendous price tag of the BiOp, Lane Electric has been actively involved in the discussion and process to advance the plan.  We feel that for the judge to approve the BiOp in its current form is consistent with the interests (opinions) of the region’s citizens, and provides the best approach to preserving salmon – a unique and cultural legacy of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Rick Crinklaw,
General Manager