Newhouse Statement on New Administration Effort Targeting the Lower Snake River Dams

Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) released the following statement on the United States Department of Energy’s announcement of a taxpayer funded study on replacing the Lower Snake River dams.

“This administration insists they are not pursuing breaching the four Lower Snake River dams, yet just announced they are using taxpayer dollars to conduct another study looking for ways to replace the power if the dams are breached,” said Rep. Newhouse.

Newhouse continued, “I will be starting oversight of DOE’s Grid Development Office in the coming weeks to get to the bottom of why they are spending more taxpayer money to fund another study that ends with the same conclusion: the Lower Snake River dams provide a critical source of renewable, reliable, and affordable baseload power and strengthen economies in the Pacific Northwest.”

The Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office announced the launch of the Pacific Northwest Regional Energy Planning Project (PREPP) process that looks at what infrastructure and resources could be needed to replace the power and services provided by the four Lower Snake River Dams.

The full announcement can be found here.

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