Article by Erik Smith. Published on Thursday, June 23, 2011 EST.

Confirmation Vote Looms —  Just Before Election, Senator Must Choose Between Greens and Business 
 

Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, and the Snake’s Lower Granite Dam.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, June 23.—Business groups were aghast this month when the Obama Administration nominated a prominent dam-breaching advocate to a key Interior position, but it looks like U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell may face the greatest discomfort of all.

            By nominating Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers, as the Interior Department’s next assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Obama forces the Senate to weigh in on her confirmation. That means Cantwell gets a big say, as a member of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, where any confirmation battle is likely to play out. But who gets her vote?

            The D.C. view is that Wodder’s nomination works for Obama — a bone thrown to environmental groups on the eve of his re-election campaign. But back in this Washington, it forces Democrat Cantwell to decide between business and green groups just before she faces a re-election campaign of her own. In this state, where green politics run deep, and the dams are at the core of the economy, the choice can’t sit easy.

            You might say she’s dammed if she does and dammed if she doesn’t.

            ‘An All-Out Affront’

            Cantwell hasn’t expressed an opinion on the subject. Nor did a spokesman for her office return calls Wednesday or Thursday from Washington State Wire.
            But business groups and water users are turning up the pressure for a Cantwell blackball. As far as they’re concerned, the Wodder nomination is an Obama Administration declaration of war on the Pacific Northwest. For the last 15 years Wodder has been a top officer of American Rivers, one of the leading groups advocating the removal of dams nationwide as a way to restore rivers and salmon runs. It is a movement that has slowly gathered steam – in Washington, removal of the Elwha Dam on the Olympic Peninsula is just beginning after years of debate. Its grandest wistful dream has been the breaching of the four massive ’70s-vintage dams on the Lower Snake. Under Wodder, American Rivers has led the charge.

            The group has sued to overturn a massive salmon-recovery plan for the Snake and Columbia hydro system, “BiOp,” short for “Biological Opinion,” putting it at odds with every other interest along the waterway – tribes, irrigators, utilities, barge operators and shippers. The negotiating process has taken years. And given the fact that the Obama Administration has offered support for the program, Wodder’s nomination caused jaws to drop. The position oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, a key agency in the decision-making process. 

            “The appointment of Rebecca Wodder is an all-out affront on the Lower Snake River dams,” said Colin Hastings, vice president of the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce. “The Obama Administration supports the BiOp, but it is probably making a political payoff to the enviros with this nomination. I just don’t think you need to play around with the Snake River dams like this.

“We have a plan in place and it’s moving forward. The salmon runs are coming back in large numbers without this dam removal, by the way, which I don’t think Rebecca Wodder will ever confirm is a good thing. And so I think this really leaves us at the chamber scratching our heads as to why he is making this appointment.”

The Tri-City chamber has passed a formal resolution asking Cantwell to oppose the nomination. It hasn’t heard from Cantwell, either.

            Position No Secret

            The senator isn’t the only player who appears to be keeping mum. Neither Wodder nor American Rivers are offering comment. But the group’s position isn’t exactly a secret. American Rivers has been a leading group in advocating dam-breaching, both nationally and on the Lower Snake. It sued to overturn the latest Columbia/Snake BiOp, from 2010, and a ruling is expected shortly from Federal District Judge James Redden in Portland, who struck down previous plans in 2000 and 2004.

            Last year Wodder said the BiOp “lowered the bar” for species restoration.

            “This is a disappointing decision for the [Obama] administration,” she said at the time. “We can recover salmon and restore the Snake River in a way that works for local communities and the region’s economy, and we should embrace that path, not shy away from it.”

            A statement on the group’s website says American Rivers is not “myopically focused only on the destruction of the dams.” It’s part of a greater vision for the Snake River that calls for a massive public investment in “green energy” – windpower and other sources – to replace the electricity generated by the dams. Spending on road and rail improvements could suit shippers, and irrigators could pump water from a free-flowing Snake River. “If someone can put forward a credible alternative plan for achieving recovery of harvestable salmon and steehead runs that protects these other values, we are ready to evaluate and embrace it. None has come to light so far, which is why we find ourselves forever in court.”

            Campaign Mounting

            The battle has raged more than 20 years, with southeast Washington at the center. Business groups like to point out that the green dream would send more carbon into the sky as river traffic is diverted, but the real problem is that someone has to pay for the program. The Columbia and Snake hydro system found a way to do it some 80 years ago, using proceeds from power sales to defray the costs of irrigation, flood control, navigation and construction. All told the 41 dams in the system produce nearly 40 percent of the region’s energy and are a foundation of its economy. Simply removing the four Lower Snake dams would cost billions with no revenue to pay for it – meaning taxpayers would be stuck with the tab.

In a letter to Cantwell, Don Brunell of the Association of Washington Business says Wodder is “well-known in the Northwest for her repeated demands to remove the four lower Snake River dams – the only way, she contends, to recover Endangered Species Act-listed salmon stocks, a position that simply does not fit with the facts.”

            The letter goes on to say, “It is clear from the unchanging nature of her statements over the years that Ms. Wodder completely lacks any appreciation for the fish passage improvements made to the river system and the many and multiple benefits the hydroelectric system provides to the Pacific Northwest.

            “Most troubling, Ms. Wodder’s continued pursuit of dam removal and statements that extinction is imminent show she has missed or purposefully ignored the massive effort made to protect and recover salmon species and the amazing success in increasing the returns of listed stocks.”

            You can’t expect Wodder to set aside her previous judgments as she oversees policy for the Fish and Wildlife Service, Brunell argues. “Conciously or not, her entrenched anti-dam mindset will infuse her every deliberation and will undermine FWS support for any BiOp that does not include dam removal.”
 

            Not Only Battle

            Also declaring opposition to Wodder’s nomination are Northwest RiverPartners, a coalition of farmers, utilities, ports and businesses in the Columbia and Snake River basin, and the Idaho Water Users Association.

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