Written by by Conor Coughlin
Last year the Seattle Times reported that Sen. Patty Murray and Washington State governor Jay Inslee commissioned, and released a report on all the benefits from removing the dams on the Snake River in the Columbia Basin. The cost to meet this Democrat fish-saving goal, is allegedly between $10.3 billion and $27.2 billion. Which is really just a rough guess by their highly-paid fish experts. That totally partisan report appears to support the positions of American Rivers, the radical non-profit group that had just announced on Feb. 28th that the Oregon and California’s Klamath River is the 2024 River of the Year. Which is one truly Orwellian Award!
Especially, in light of the fact that Klamath River dam-removal project had already become possibly the single largest, and most costly man-made ecological disaster in U.S. history. On March 11, the California Globe was announcing that their first annual “River of Death” award, was going to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) and its CEO Mark Bransom. Apparently, the CEO of KRRC had decided to go ‘off-plan’ on January 23rd, but failed to inform his government partners of his scheme.
By March 26th, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors had declared a local State of Emergency. That emergency was the direct result of several million yards of highly-polluted clay sediment killing all the aquatic life on the Klamath River. Which was a very disturbing outcome for the local citizens, that had repeatedly been informed that these were really smart people, that cared deeply about fish and wildlife. Endless lectures by the tax-payer funded ‘experts’ at NW universities, NASA, the Bonneville Power Administration, and Dept of Energy bureaucrats had assured the public for decades that their science was sound. It wasn’t just good science, it was some of the best science money could buy.
This innovative project wasn’t only about restoring endangered species of fish, it was going to create high-paying sustainable jobs for the Klamath Justice Coalition. This grassroots group of Indigenous leaders came up with the “Un-dam the Klamath, bring the salmon home” campaign, that was allegedly heard all the way from their fishing boats to the Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company of PacifiCorp that owns and operated the four Klamath River dams. In 2020, the company agreed to transfer operating licenses of the dams to KRRC, and the states of Oregon and California. Berkshire also agreed to share the burden of any cost overruns, in a deal that would have made no sense at all to most normal investors. Unless, PacifiCorp had already found a more efficient way to make the big bucks, than marketing low-cost hydroelectric power.
Americans aren’t supposed to know that former EPA Director Gina McCarthy, had began a new Superfund clean-up project back on Jan. 3, 2017. Two weeks before Donald Trump became the U.S. President, Gina McCarthy introduced “Restoration Credits” as new concept for their Portland Harbor Superfund clean-up project. In 2021, the EPA announced that 100% of the project site was now in the active engineering phase, after spending nearly a 100 years studying the same pollution.
By November of 2023, the EPA announced it had reached a $33 million settlement agreement for the responsible parties that polluted Portland Harbor, and a 3,012-page report listing the main groups that EPA had engaged with for their clean-up effort.
That diverse body, included activist groups like Occupy St. Johns, Coalition of Black Men, Verde, Right 2 Survive, Latino Network, Sierra Club Portland, Oregon Environmental Justice Task Force, Right 2 Dream Too, and other Portland neighborhood associations and schools. Presumably the members of those activist groups, were not involved with felonious assaults on the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland during July of 2020. But, it probably wouldn’t have mattered to the EPA if they had been part of that organized chaos in Portland.
Don’t bother asking how the EPA crafted the financial formula for that scheme, because its really none of your business. That might undermine the Dept of Energy’s new “Creating Equity in Energy For People of Color” program, that utilizes minority groups for the clean-up of other government-created toxic pollution at locations like DOE’s Savannah River Site. The concept of EPA Restoration credits for minority groups, are said to be like ecological “shares” in a restoration project. Its almost like receiving Reparations from the government, but it may make you sick in the process.
Today I ran across an “unpublished” Rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service & NOAA that will be officially published on 4/05/24, which is tomorrow. The main theme behind this new Rule by E.O. (#13990) is “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis” was issued January 20, 2021, and directed all departments and agencies to immediately review agency actions taken between Jan. 20, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021, and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider suspending, revising, or rescinding agency actions that conflict with important national objectives, including promoting and protecting our public health and the environment, and to immediately commence work to confront the climate crisis.
The Biden regime claims they accepted public comments for this Rule on June 22, 2023. Which will be clarifying the definition of “effects of the action”, “environmental baseline”, and “reasonable and prudent measures”. While removing “Other provisions” which had been promulgated with the intent of clarifying several aspects of the process.
After over thirty years, its comforting to know that Democrats are finally ready to confront the climate crisis. Or some other issues, that they’ve been struggling with for so many decades.
If all of this sound completely crazy, you’re on the road to understanding the logic behind Progressive business models, labor contracts, and some seriously delusional science. It may be 2024, but Democrats plan on taking this Presidential election back to an Orwellian version of 1984