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BPA Follows Time-worn Pattern: Blame Salmon for its Own Failings to Adapt by Stephen Pfeiffer Idaho Capital Sun, April 23, 2026

Salmon are barely trickling back to their pristine habitat. This is due
to the treatment of the river system between Idaho and the ocean.

Idaho's future is caught in the bureaucratic stranglehold of a federal agency intent on clinging to the status quo.

Bonneville Power Administration's business mindset operates as if salmon and other native fish of the Columbia Basin were placed into the dam-reservoir system that stairsteps its way down much of the Columbia and Snake rivers, rather than the other way around. The system is seen as immutable, and the declining health of fisheries and river communities across the basin are the cost of doing business.

In upstream Idaho, we see no benefit from this archaic, binary way of looking at the modern possibilities related to fulfilling the mandate of the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to provide an "adequate, affordable, equitable, reliable" power supply for the region. BPA often chafes at the "burden" of legal obligations to protect Endangered Species Act-listed salmon runs and fulfill the other half of that 1980 bill: to rebuild these beleaguered populations of salmon from the impacts of hydropower.

As a result, Idahoans see our iconic Central Idaho habitat practically empty of fish, an economic engine capable of supporting thousands of rural jobs and filling coolers stalled out.

Idahoans upheld the upstream end of the bargain when they supported protections for salmon habitat in places like the Frank Church Wilderness and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. We continue to advocate for public lands in public hands, with stewardship that means healthy rivers and habitat for fish and game to thrive.

Idaho elected leaders like Frank Church saw the importance of these watersheds as natural "fish factories," which was critical to achieving the protections we now have in place. However, the salmon are barely trickling back to the thousands of miles of pristine habitat, and this is all due to the treatment of the river system between Idaho and the ocean.

BPA's recent reaction to a federal court injunction, which provided better conditions for salmon migrating through the hydrosystem, was to place the burden on its power customers by forecasting a rate increase. This comes, despite the agency having access to a range of management options to address changes in power generation from the dams, options it has used in the past to avoid or minimize rate impacts.

Even if it is true that BPA's hands are tied in the near-term with increasing rates to recover costs from lost potential power generation due to this court ruling, it is equally true that the agency itself has tied the knot.

This public agency has a long pattern of nearsightedness, and failing to diversify its energy portfolio beyond the hydrosystem has resulted in decision making that costs salmon both in the near-term and in their long-term potential for meaningful recovery.

Due to BPA's chronic under-investment in recovery projects prioritized by states and tribes, and a failure to look ahead toward the transformative change that is removal of the Lower Snake River dams, river users, power customers, and fishing communities are all left in a constant state of uncertainty and cast as adversaries when salmon and energy security are unfairly pitted against one another.

Salmon and dams can coexist, but only in a system where a better balance is struck, where the region can truly fulfill the vision of the NWPA of 1980. Central Idaho could truly be the Bristol Bay of the lower-48 drawing in fishing dollars from across the nation, and BPA can continue to provide a stable power supply, but only if we remove four dams and truly invest in new infrastructure and fisheries recovery across the basin.

The how-to answer lies in BPA investing in replacing just 4% of the region's power as part of a diversification toward abundant, shovel-ready clean energy projects, and connecting to wider energy markets across the West.

The hydrosystem can still provide the baseload backbone of power as part of a grid that grows to meet quickly rising demand, without four relatively insignificant dams. However, this is only possible if BPA is proactive in enabling a smooth transition.

The reward is truly having our cake and eating it too: the Central Idaho "fish factory" turns back on and we keep power in the Northwest "adequate, affordable, equitable, reliable" in the face of a rapidly changing world.