The federal government is studying whether to breach the dams to help the endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead. The dams generate an average of 1,137 megawatts of electricity a year, about 4 percent of the electricity used in the Northwest. We have shown that is not the case.
Clean energy is there, it's reliable and it's affordable.
The authors of the study assumed that if the dams were left in place, measures to make the Snake River safer for fish would reduce their average electricity production to 940 megawatts a year. The Bonneville Power Administration is a federal agency that sells electricity generated at 29 federal dams and one nuclear plant. Eighty-seven percent of the replacement power would come from natural gas and 13 percent would come from coal. Conservation measures, such as subsidies to encourage energy-efficient buildings, could lower demand for electricity. Investments in wind and solar power could produce electricity that is still needed.