WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy (DOE) today released the following statement from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on President Trump’s Presidential Memorandum halting the Biden Administration’s radical Columbia River Basin policy:
“The Snake River Dams have been tremendous assets to the Pacific Northwest for decades, providing high-value electricity to millions of American families and businesses. With this action, President Trump is bringing back common sense, reversing the dangerous and costly energy subtraction policies pursued by the last administration. American taxpayer dollars will not be spent dismantling critical infrastructure, reducing our energy-generating capacity or on radical nonsense policies that dramatically raise prices on the American people.”
Today’s Presidential Memorandum revokes the Biden Administration’s “Restoring Healthy and Abundant Fish” directive and directs federal agencies, including the Energy Department, to withdraw from costly policies that would have resulted in the elimination of over 3,000 megawatts of secure and reliable hydroelectric generating capacity – enough generation to power 2.5 million American homes.
The Biden-era MOU required the federal government to spend over $1 billion and comply with 36 pages of costly, onerous commitments aimed at replacing services provided by the Lower Snake River Dams and advancing the possibility of breaching them. Breaching the dams would have doubled the region’s risk of power shortages, driven wholesale electricity rates up by as much as 50%, and cost as much as $31.3 billion to replace.
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