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Friday, June 17, 2022
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Opinion
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion
Our View
A bee is not a fish, except in California
W
e live in a time when we
are regularly being told that
we are not to believe what
we see, but instead to believe what
we are told about what we see. Up is
down, down is up.
Still, we were nonetheless surprised
a California appeals court has ruled that
a bumble bee can be a fish as defined
by the California Endangered Species
Act. Then again, it is California.
In 2018, the Defenders of Wildlife,
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conser-
vation and Center for Food Safety peti-
tioned the California Fish and Game
Commission to list four bumble bee
species — the Crotch, Franklin’s, Suck-
ley cuckoo and Western bumble bees
— for CESA protection.
However, there was a catch. The
California law only protects “native
species or subspecies of
a bird, mammal, fish,
amphibian, reptile or
plant.” Insects are notably
missing from the list.
But, that’s only if you
A California
read the plain text of the
fish?
law. Don’t believe what
you see.
Section 45 of CESA defines a fish
as a “wild fish, mollusk, crustacean,
invertebrate, amphibian or part, spawn
or ovum of any of those animals.” The
environmental groups argued for a rein-
terpretation of the code where the word
“invertebrate” includes all invertebrates
whether on land or in the water.
The California Fish and Game Com-
mission responded by voting to begin
the listing process in 2019 but was sued
by seven agricultural groups, including
the Almond Alliance of California and
the California Farm Bureau Federation.
The California Superior Court ruled
in favor of the farm groups in 2020, but
last month the California 3rd District
Court of Appeals reversed the decision,
allowing bumble bees to be classified
as fish.
“Although the term fish is collo-
quially and commonly understood to
refer to aquatic species, the term of art
employed by the Legislature in the defi-
nition of fish in section 45 is not so
limited,” 3rd district California Court
of Appeals Associate Justice Ronald
Robie wrote for the three-judge panel.
“…Accordingly, a terrestrial inverte-
brate, like each of the four bumble bee
species, may be listed as an endangered
or threatened species under the Act.”
A fish is whatever we say it is.
We think the court is mistaken and
has given short shrift to the clear lan-
Dams are critical
for reliable energy
grid in Northwest
Our View
“I
Getty Images
The spillway at Lower Monumental Dam in Washington on the Snake River.
The political thought process
and the Snake River dams
W
hen Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray commissioned
a “study” of tearing down the four dams
on the lower Snake River, we saw it as little more
than another political sales pitch.
The main goal would be to come up with a cost
lower than the $33.5 billion estimated by Rep. Mike
Simpson, R-Idaho. The apparent reasoning was that
is an obscene amount of money to spend on not
much, but that a smaller number would in some way
be less obscene.
Such is the political thought process.
Now that the draft version of the study has been
released, it appears that analysis was correct. The
consultants hired to write the study came up with
lower costs — mainly by leaving things out.
The study wasn’t really much. It was based on
information already readily available. One might
more accurately describe it as a Reader’s Digest ver-
sion of studies by others, including Simpson and an
assortment of federal agencies.
As such, there’s not much to say about it, except
for the parts that are left out to reduce the costs.
Simpson’s wild guess of $34 billion is magically
reduced to $10 billion to $27 billion. One supposes
that if more items were left off the project list, the
pricetag would get even smaller.
Brief attention is paid to the fact that blowing
up those dams would be the equivalent of taking a
wrecking ball to the region’s economy. For example,
those dams produce an average of 1,000 megawatts
— enough electricity to power all the households
in Seattle, Portland, Spokane and Boise. That elec-
tricity cannot be replaced by a couple of solar farms
and a windmill. And considering the big push to buy
electric cars, more generation capacity, not less, is
needed in the Northwest and elsewhere.
Suddenly, barge traffic on Snake River would be
truncated, forcing farmers and others shipping their
crops from Washington, Idaho and points east to
export ports along the Columbia River to use more
trucks and railroads.
That won’t be cheap. Diesel fuel is over $6 a gal-
lon and heading north, railroads and trucking compa-
nies are short-handed and the reliability of mainline
railroads is as bad as it’s ever been.
guage California legislators used to
define “fish.” In 1970, when the act
became law, a fish was a fish, and a bee
was a bee.
When lawmakers repealed the act
and replaced it in 1984, and amended
it several times over the years, it did
nothing that broadened the definition of
fish to include insects, or provide spe-
cific protection to insects. The court
acknowledges its position requires a lib-
eral interpretation.
No kidding.
Bees and other insects could con-
ceivably need protection. The legisla-
ture is free to add, in equally clear lan-
guage, a definition of “insect” and
extend potential protection.
The issue before the court was
whether the act, as written, provided the
basis for that protection. It did not.
Anyone even suggesting that it would be OK to
trade reliable and efficient barge traffic for trucks
and railroads is fantasizing. But again, isn’t fantasy
an appropriate word to describe a plan to damage a
region’s economy for fish? And apparently the fish
are already doing all right. Fish passage rates at the
dams are well over 90%, according to U.S. Rep. Dan
Newhouse, who opposes wrecking the dams
There is a reality check in the study — one that
has always existed for those who have targeted
Northwest dams. Inslee and Murray do not own
those four Snake River dams. The American people
do. They pay trillions of dollars in taxes to the fed-
eral government every year with the expectation that
the money will be spent wisely.
It is unfortunate that “wisely” is not the way many
people would describe federal overspending. Last
year alone, the federal government spent $6.82 tril-
lion and took in $4.05 trillion in revenue. The overall
federal deficit is $30.5 trillion — and counting.
The result, as anyone who has bought groceries,
fuel — or almost anything else — can testify, is high
inflation that robs everyone.
With this scenario in mind, Washington’s gov-
ernor and one of its U.S. senators have a lot of gall
to even give lip service to spending tens of billions
of borrowed dollars to put a torch to a major part of
their own state’s economy and then borrow more
money to try to put it back together.
That is another part left out of the study.
solated interrup-
tions in electric
service can have
catastrophic health and eco-
nomic consequences. A
robust and reliable elec-
tric power system is there-
fore not only a basic human
necessity but is also criti-
cal to national security and
defense.”
It is not often that I agree
with President Biden, but his
words declaring an electric-
ity emergency ring true to
all of us in the Pacific North-
west and across the United
States. Americans are facing
record-high energy costs due
to a Green New Deal agenda,
and our nation’s electric grid
is at risk. Fortunately for our
region, we have an exam-
ple of reliable, clean, and
renewable energy right here:
The Federal Columbia River
Power System.
Last week, I was proud
to lead a delegation of Con-
gressional Western Caucus
Members from across the
United States on a tour of the
Columbia and Snake Riv-
ers, as well as the Ice Harbor
Dam. We learned about the
benefits the dam system pro-
vides for Central Washington,
our region, and the nation.
In addition to the incredi-
bly important role the dams
play for our state’s economy
and agriculture industry, we
learned about the generat-
ing capacity the dams along
these powerful rivers have
to provide clean, renewable,
and affordable energy for our
homes and businesses.
In Central Washington,
we enjoy some of the lowest
electricity costs in the country
— even as the Biden admin-
istration’s actions result in
grid insecurities and rising
gas prices. The dams along
the Columbia and Snake riv-
ers have contributed greatly
to the stability of our region’s
electric grid, which ensures
that Washingtonians enjoy a
stable and abundant supply
of affordable power. We even
send excess power to states
like California, whose lead-
ership has already dismantled
baseload energy resources in
exchange for unreliable inter-
mittent sources like wind and
solar, causing communities to
experience energy shortages
and “brown outs.”
Unfortunately,
dam-breaching advocates —
including Governor Inslee
and Senator Murray — want
to tear them out, arguing that
in order to protect native
salmon species, we must
eliminate the Pacific North-
west’s most reliable source of
renewable power.
Their conclusion is false.
As U.S. Army Corps sci-
entists, Pacific North-
west National Laboratory
GUEST
VIEW
Rep. Dan
Newhouse
researchers, and other local
experts demonstrated during
our tour last week, dams and
fish can — and do — co-ex-
ist. Our dams have a 96-98%
fish passage rate, and the
technologies being deployed
at Ice Harbor are serving as a
model for hydropower dams
all over the world. In fact, the
latest comprehensive review
of the dam system by fed-
eral scientists concluded that
breaching the dams would do
more harm than good for our
region, and there is no scien-
tific evidence that removal
of the dams would improve
salmon recovery.
This week, I intro-
duced the Federal Colum-
bia Power System Certainty
Act to ensure that operations
of the dam system along the
Columbia and Snake Rivers
are conducted in accordance
with the best available sci-
ence as they continue to pro-
vide the carbon-free, base-
load energy our state and
region depend on.
The impacts of this
administration’s failed
energy policies have now,
quite literally, resulted in
the declaration of a national
emergency, and if we are
going to address our nation’s
electricity shortfalls, we must
support and promote hydro-
power. That support must
include the Columbia and
Snake River dam system,
which has the capacity to
generate enough electricity to
power every major city in the
Pacific Northwest.
Hydroelectric dams play
a critical role in the diverse
energy portfolio we need
to build a stable and resil-
ient energy grid. And, as we
saw firsthand on our field
tour, Central Washington
is embracing an all-of-the-
above energy portfolio that
benefits rural communities,
agriculture producers, local
economies, and — impor-
tantly — our environment.
I will continue to work in
Congress, through my role
as Chairman of the Western
Caucus and as a Member of
the Energy and Water Appro-
priations Subcommittee, and
alongside the countless lead-
ers and partners through-
out our district to defend our
dams and support a robust
energy grid that will meet our
nation’s electricity needs.
Dan Newhouse represents
Washington’s 4th Congres-
sional District and serves as
Chairman of the Congressio-
nal Western Caucus.