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Canceling Columbia River Deal Washes Away Years of Work by Editorial Board Yakama Herald, June 21, 2025

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump unceremoniously blew up a painstakingly negotiated agreement that the U.S. government, the states of Oregon and Washington, and four Indigenous tribes signed off on two years ago.

No surprise there. Predictably on-brand for Trump.

The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement would've restored salmon populations, supported clean energy development by Northwest tribes and might -- might -- have meant four Snake River dams could be breached.

So it was an obvious target.

"Radical environmentalism," cried the president who's gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management System, the Department of Education and health services for millions of Americans.

But whether Trump realizes it or not, the deal he just vaporized was a milestone achievement that had paused decades of court battles that had cost taxpayers astronomical legal fees.

What could be more "radical" than a compromise that brought a measure of political peace to an age-old argument?

Understandably, tribal leaders -- including those from the Yakama Nation -- are feeling betrayed and frustrated. So is everyone else who negotiated in good faith to reach the agreement.

"The administration's decision to terminate these commitments echoes the federal government's historic pattern of broken promises to tribes, and is contrary to President Trump's stated commitment to domestic energy development," Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis lamented in a statement.

"Grievously wrong," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in denouncing the administration's thoughtless and heavy-handed decision. "Couldn't be more shortsighted."

"Donald Trump doesn't know the first thing about the Northwest and our way of life -- so of course, he is abruptly and unilaterally upending a historic agreement that finally put us on a path to salmon recovery, while preserving stable dam operations for growers and producers, public utilities, river users, ports and others throughout the Northwest," Murray said in a news release.

Then again, Rep. Dan Newhouse -- the 4th Congressional District Republican who's recently changed his ways and is now obediently aligned with the president he once voted to impeach -- had a markedly different take.

"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," Newhouse said in a statement of his own.

And there it is. Just like that, the chaos president has reignited a regional fire that was on the path to containment. The longstanding political and cultural battle lines are re-emerging, and a delicate equilibrium has been swatted aside.

Is anything fixed, saved or enhanced? No.

Salmon populations will continue to decline, dams will keep aging and electric rates -- well, you don't really think they'll go down, do you?

But it's a happy day for the lawyers who can now count on a steady stream of billable hours for years to come. And it's another childish conquest for a president who's proven to be much better at breaking deals than making them.

Meantime, a lot of thought, effort and goodwill just got swept downstream.