Habitat work by Columbia River tribes is in progress to maintain and rejuvenate refuges of cold water in the Columbia River upstream of Bonneville Dam in partnership with the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.
Higher than expected revenues, lower expenses and debt management have resulted in the Bonneville Power Administration forecasting net revenues of $210 million, $70 million above agency targets. The encouraging results improve on the first quarter net revenue forecast of negative $44 million, which was impacted by the dry winter weather.
Northwest states have been consuming about 22,000 average megawatts of electricity per year, but the Northwest Power and Conservation Council is forecasting double that amount by 2046 to as much as 44,000 aMW, according to a just-completed initial forecast of Northwest energy demand.
Mixed ocean conditions for Columbia River salmon and steelhead juveniles entering the ocean in 2023 translate to average runs of spring and fall Chinook when they return as adults in 2025, according to information from NOAA Fisheries presented to a changing Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week.
There are more summer steelhead spawning this year in waters upstream of the Pelton-Round Butte Complex of dams on central Oregon’s Deschutes River than at anytime since the 1960s, according to Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, which co-own the dams.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has two new Oregon Members. Gov. Tina Kotek appointed Margaret Hoffmann and Chuck Sams, and the Oregon Senate has confirmed their appointments to the Council.
Tribal and Washington fishery managers are doubling down on recovering threatened spring Chinook salmon in the Tucannon River in Eastern Washington by raising juveniles originating from the river at a hatchery 300 miles downstream.
U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, said this week they are demanding President Trump answer questions about his administration’s deep job cuts at the Bonneville Power Administration and “how those reckless and financially ludicrous decisions add up to undermine the dependability of the electric grid for Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest.”
Higher power purchase expenses due to low stream flows and dry winter weather have resulted in the Bonneville Power Administration forecasting agency net revenues of negative $44 million, $114 million below the agency target of $70 million.
A December, 2023 agreement among six Northwest sovereigns and the U.S. government to restore Columbia River basin salmon and steelhead runs to “healthy and abundant levels” and touted by advocates as a collaborative effort to restore salmon runs in the basin, was questioned this week at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting in Portland.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council has released a letter requesting recommendations from the region on how to amend its Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, with submissions due by April 17.
Citing new information and changed circumstances, two federal agencies are reopening this week their 2020 final environmental impact study for operations at 14 Columbia/Snake river federal hydroelectric dams and are now seeking public input. The final EIS guides the dams’ impacts on salmon and steelhead listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The average number of salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia River each year has remained mostly constant over the last twenty years. While today’s returns of the fish have improved dramatically since the 1990s at a time when many of the species were being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, today’s combined returns are still only half of the 2025 goal of 5 million fish set by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
The Bonneville Power Administration plans to spend next year $41 million more in fish and wildlife projects in the Columbia River basin than it actually spent in 2023, and five million more than what was budgeted for 2024, for which actual spending is not yet available.
Just the third executive director of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council in 45 years is about to leave. After nearly five years in the position, Executive Director Bill Edmonds is planning to step down in spring 2025.
Some 262 adult summer steelhead have returned to the Pelton Round Butte hydroelectric project’s trap on Oregon’s Deschutes River as of November 7 and all have been or will be released into Lake Billy Chinook.
The Bonneville Power Administration reported its end-of-year financial performance results for fiscal year 2024 at its Quarterly Business Review, showing negative revenues and missed targets.
Amazon and Energy Northwest, a public power agency leading in the development of “next-generation” nuclear technologies, have announced an agreement to fund efforts to move toward development and deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology on the Columbia River in Washington state “to advance reliable energy across the Northwest.”
Offshore wind energy may represent the most significant new commercial use of the ocean seen in many decades. As new offshore wind technology emerges off the U.S. West Coast, NOAA Fisheries has developed a strategic science plan identifying both opportunities and challenges for advancing the agency’s research and understanding of offshore wind in the region.
The Bonneville Power Administration has identified 13 more transmission substation and line projects necessary to reinforce the Pacific Northwest’s electric grid.
A draft report to Congress briefly outlines progress the Northwest Power and Conservation Council made in fiscal year 2023 on its Power Plan and Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. The draft report was approved to go out for public comment until Dec. 10 by the Council last week at its meeting in Portland.
The Department of the Interior has announced it will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale off southern Oregon. The two areas to be auctioned on October 15, 2024, by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could generate more than 3.1 gigawatts of clean, renewable energy if fully developed, which could power approximately one million homes.
The hydropower industry has filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court that challenges administrative changes to the federal Endangered Species Act made by Biden Administration agencies this spring that the industry says were made in “excess of the Services’ statutory jurisdiction and authority.”
Oregon U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced that the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission is set to receive a $794,000 federal grant from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support their salmon recovery work and strengthen underserved communities impacted by climate change in the Columbia River Estuary.
The Washington Department of Ecology has developed changes to the state’s aquatic life toxics criteria the agency says are based on updated science and new research, new methods and modeling tools, and recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tribal governments.
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