Trump revokes Columbia River salmon restoration deal, citing energy concerns

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Thursday revoking the Columbia River Basin agreement.

The directive nullifies the “Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead, and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River Basin” memorandum put in place by the Biden administration.

The agreement was meant to increase funding for fisheries projects and explore alternative energy sources to replace the Lower Snake River dams, allowing fish to return to their natural habitats, according to Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. The Orca Network has said that a lack of salmon is a primary driver of orca extinction.

“The Trump administration is turning its back on an unprecedented opportunity to support a thriving Columbia Basin—and ignoring the extinction crisis facing our salmon,” Earthjustice Senior Attorney Amanda Goodin said, via the nonprofit’s website. “Unfortunately, this short-sighted decision to renege on this important agreement is just the latest in a series of anti-government and anti-science actions coming from the Trump administration.”

Columbia River Basin agreement would potentially hurt power grid

However, Rep. Dan Newhouse, WA-04, said breaching the dams would mean cutting a large power source.

“Today’s action by President Trump reverses the efforts by the Biden administration and extreme environmental activists to remove the dams, which would have threatened the reliability of our power grid, raised energy prices, and decimated our ability to export grain to foreign markets,” he said in a statement on his website.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration wrote that the president is “putting America first.”

“President Trump continues to prioritize our nation’s energy infrastructure and use of natural resources to lower the cost of living for all Americans over speculative climate change concerns,” the White House’s website stated.

Earthjustice said it will continue to fight to prevent the extinction of salmon.

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