Oregon and Washington have already removed some dams, starting with the earthen ones, and plans are to remove dams that in total generate 1000 megawatts of hydroelectric power. The reasons are many, but mostly to save the salmon and steelhead that use the rivers to spawn. Populations have decreased so much with the dams, that they were becoming endangered. Spillways at the dams just didn't work. Fish can't swim upstream with concrete in the way.
Just like Trump thinks that we should be burning coal, oil and gas with abandon to generate electricity instead of renewable energy, he thinks he's saving hydroelectric power generation by stopping the removal of dams, at the expense of fish and Native American tribes. It is unfortunate that the dams are renewable energy, but life will find a way.
Trump's memorandum is titled: Stopping Environmental Radicalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin. The fact sheet for it is: Donald J. Trump Stops the Green Agenda in Columbia Rivef Basin.
It's another "Joe Biden signed it, so it has to be gotten rid of" jobs. Biden's was titled: "Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, Steelhead, and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River Basin." Trump says it was all about climate change, which makes no sense at all. But if it is to mitigate climate change, it must be those radical environmentalists behind it again.
He calls for the Army for Civil Works to cancel all the dam removal agreements. Trump triples the amount of electricity generation lost to 3000 megawatts, when it's only 1000.
He says he shares the concern for the fish then completely ignores it.
"Stopping Radical Environmentalism," "... climate change above the Nation's interests in reliable energy sources," "Biden's misguided executive action," "revise environmental review," "lower the cost of living." These are the buzz phrases Trump uses to justify shutting the operation down.
There are two main concerns. Loss of power generation and the impact on farmers. Farmers in the Lower Snake River would lose barge waterways to transport crops. Irrigation would also be affected so much that farmers could have to change to crops less water intensive. Pumping stations could be built, but who is going to pay for that and running them?
There's also sediment released into the water and possibly contaminated sediment impacting water quality and breeding grounds. River flood risks increase. Property values, especially waterfront, would change as water receeds. Here's a 17-page assessment of the good and the bad of dam removal on the ecology (PDF).
"Unlike the previous administration, the Trump Administration understands that policies that promote environmental quality and economic growth are not mutually exclusive." The people of the area requested for this to be done. It was not some unilateral decision by Biden.
"President Trump signed an executive order reinvigorating America's beautiful clean coal industry to support grid stability and hundreds of thousands of US jobs."
Coal isn't clean, and nobody wants to dig new coal mines. And there aren't hundreds of thousands of people involved in coal mining at all. In 2022, there were 38,000 coal miners in the whole United States. That number is dropping, and coal companies are filing for bankruptcy.
Why is Trump bringing up the coal industry, when we're talking about rivers and hydroelectric power and fish? I suppose it's just another one of his patting himself on the back excuses for what he's doing generally.
Lastly, in the fact sheet, he does another pat on the back for getting rid of EPA regulations so Alaska's natural resources can be stolen quickly, and at little cost.
Trump has no care for the fish as he claims. He just sees this as a way to stick it to Biden. That's all he cares about.
