WENATCHEE — The impacts of an agreement between the U.S. and “six sovereigns” on local utilities remained unclear Monday.
Chelan County PUD commissioners heard an update on the agreement intending to place a pause on Endangered Species Act litigation and add federal investment dollars in clean energy and salmon conservation.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) filed in December in an Oregon Federal District Court “creates a framework for funding” and what’s important for the Chelan County PUD — “a process in theory to create more power generation in the northwest,” said Tracy Yount, external affairs director. “And it also changes how some of the decisions might be made going forward with respect to funds from the Bonneville Power Administration.”
“This came out. It was a closed-door negotiation with NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and so for many, like us, it was a surprise,” Yount said. “That is different than the region works. In most cases, where stakeholders directly affected by something have an opportunity to participate and utilities did not have an opportunity to participate.”
The process is ongoing, however.
The “sovereigns” have fought court battles for around 30 years over the protection of threatened and endangered salmon in the Columbia River Basin.
“They (signers of the agreement) refer to themselves at\s the six sovereigns, states of Washington, Oregon, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, (Confederated Tribes of the) Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the (Confederated Tribes of) Warm Springs, in addition to the Nez Perce,” Yount said. “This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the legal opposition, but it’s the states of Idaho, Montana, Public Power Council, Northwest River Partners and Inland Ports and Navigation Group. Folks that may have had an opportunity to participate in some way, but many of these folks were on the outside looking in and have a real concern about process and outcome.
“It’s (the agreement) adding another layer of financial commitments in addition to the current funding levels. In addition to what we’ve been seeing for years and years by the Bonneville Power Administration for addressing the fish component of this agreement.”
In the agreement, the BPA will provide an additional $200 million in hatchery upgrades and $100 million for six sovereign projects.
The MOU also “incorporates an earlier agreement with Upper Columbia River tribes for $200 million over 20 years for reintroduction feasibility studies,” according to the PUD presentation. Additionally, the “Department of Energy will support 1-3 gigawatts of new, clean energy Pacific Northwest Tribal Energy Program to ‘replace’ the Snake River dams.’”
The projects are “very vague, even in the agreement,” said Suzanne Grassell, PUD senior policy advisor. “Basically, BPA will be providing $10 million a year over 10 years to projects that contribute to the restoration of salmon and other native fish and it will be provided to the six sovereigns in a manner to be agreed upon by them to distribute to specific projects that they prioritize. So they will be coordinating with other regional sovereigns, other states potentially, on those projects, but they will be in the driver’s seat in terms of determining how that $10 million a year is allocated.”
One of the differences is the decision-making around these monies, Yount said. “We’ll see how that plays out.”
The deal’s five-year stay on further litigation will be decided by U.S. District Judge Michael Simon, who had yet to sign off on it as of Monday, according to Erik Wahlquist, PUD general counsel/chief compliance officer. However, the sovereigns plan to proceed as much as possible regardless of the stay, he said.
“Since we weren’t obviously in any of the discussions, don’t have any examples of where that $200 million, what the priorities are,” Yount said of BPA’s money for hatchery upgrades.
Grassell said the sovereigns would discuss where to allocate money, “but a lot of that is yet to unfold because the memorandum of understanding is pending with the court.”
As far as funding is concerned, “The money will be coming from a lot of different sources,” Grassell said, with the BPA appearing to be the largest provider so far.
The agreement includes the possibility of removing all of the lower Snake River Dams, but Yount said utilities projected electric growth will need all of the new energy, plus the energy from the dams.
“The lower Snake River Dams provide a lot of different types of value even beyond power generation, but we don’t see a future with the crystal ball that we’re using that says ‘We don’t need those. We don’t need the dams on the lower Snake River,’” Yount said.
NOAA Fisheries expects no changes to the PUD’s Habitat Conservations Plans due to agreement, Yount added. However, a lot of questions remained and BPA customers predicted “significant rate increases.”
“We don’t know what the future looks (like),” Yount said. “It is not something right now that we have enough information to say, ‘Here are all the great things that are going to happen to the grid.’ In fact, we would say right now, there’s much more caution because we don’t know the decision-making process. We don’t know objectives or actual outcomes of some of the things that might be invested.”
“And especially not knowing who the sovereign of the state of Washington is,” said Commissioner Kelly Allen. “It’s a big unknown.”
Those who signed the agreement included Gov. Jay Inslee, but it was unclear which entity in Washington was representing the state at the time of the agreement.
On Jan. 24, U.S. District 4 Rep. Dan Newhouse introduced the Defending Against Manipulative Negotiators Act (DAMN Act) to prohibit the use of federal funds from being used in breaching or altering the Lower Snake River Dams and to prohibit the implementation of the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative. U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Washington), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Oregon), Russ Fulcher (Idaho), and Cliff Bentz (Oregon) also backed the bill.
