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Commentaries and editorials

When Dams are Gone,
So is Power

by Jim Thorn
Walla Walla Union Bulletin, November 4, 2018

Graphic: Energy Strategies analysis used 77 years of historic water flows, and 80 years of Temperature/Load data to run 6160 simulations in NW Power & Conservation Council's GENESYS to determine the Northwest's resource adequacy. The Center for Whale Research is trying to make a case for breaching the Lower Snake River dams (advertisement in U-B Oct. 28).

The ad makes numerous mistakes. Consider the hydropower section.

Talk of surplus and losses to ratepayers and expense to operate is just obfuscation. Here is the straightforward truth.

At the very least (midwinter), those dams are powering 400,000 homes (about a kilowatt apiece).

At the most (late spring), those dams are powering 1.87 million homes. Maybe those homes aren't in Seattle, since once the power is on the grid, specific source and destination cannot be specified.

But for sure, those homes are somewhere, and when the dams are gone, they will be without power.

What does the Center for Whale Research propose to say to those 1.87 million powerless homeowners?


Jim Thorn, Dayton
When Dams are Gone, So is Power
Walla Walla Union Bulletin November 4, 2018

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