Dam Nation

Ny Times Targets Renewable Energy

DamNation!

“ CHURCHVILLE, VA--Just as congress is set to tax fossil fuels out of the U.S. economy, the New York Times has reasserted its utterly foolish demand that we tear out existing hydroelectric dams--the dams that provide most of our renewable energy in the form of water-generated electricity.. Hydroelectric dams produce 8.5 percent of our power, and it's all carbon-free. That's nearly five times the deliveries from our erratic solar panels and wind turbines. Now we're supposed to tear out hydroelectric dams just as every other key energy source is ripped away by a rapacious congress? What in the name of glitzy/ditzy Manhattan is the former "national paper of record" trying to do to the American people? The Times anguished on July 7th that we've only torn out "only" 430 of the nation's evil river-killing dams. It specifically mentions tearing down four power dams on the lower Snake River. The reason? The Times says that will "protect salmon on the West Coast." Nonsense. Hasn't Andrew Revkin, the Times' science writer, heard yet about the Pacific Decadal Oscillation discovered in 1996? Salmon numbers dropped radically in the Columbia after 1977-- as the salmon catch surged upward in the Gulf of Alaska. The ocean currents had redistributed the fish food in the open ocean, delivering the food species to different destinations in a 50-60 year cycle that shows up brilliantly in the salmon catch records of both fisheries. The PDO also impacts catches of halibut, sardines, anchovies and other fish Pacific-wide. The fish species weren't in danger, though some of the fishermen's livelihoods were.  [continued] ” Last week or so  I watched a documentary on one of the Hitler Channel's about a recent dam removal in Washington, or maybe Oregon or Idaho, I forget.  The project engineer was the same man who just ten years earlier had overseen its restoration  He did such a fine job  that removing it created  unique and difficult problems.  During  interviews, said engineer, while careful not to say as much, was obviously (through his body language and voice inflection) wanting to scream "What the bloody hell are these assholes doing?"  Exactly.