To the Editor:
Cracks in the four lower Snake River dams? Not literally, but metaphorically weakening and widening.
Over the past five years, the energy these dams have generated have declined by 29%.
Bonneville Power Administration’s 2026-2028 wholesale price for electricity the agency sells to Pacific Northwest public utility districts is $40/Megawatt hour. Over the past 15 years, the cost of utility-scale solar energy has plummeted 85%. The Berkeley National Laboratory reports Power Purchase Agreements in the West (excluding California) provide power at around $24/Megawatt hour.
The U.S. Energy Administration reports that the Pacific Northwest has witnessed the slowest growth in solar energy of any region in the U.S. In a state-by-state comparison of the rate of renewable energy growth between the decades 2005-2014 and 2015-2024, the state of Washington comes in dead last.
Consider this as an explanation: BPA owns 75% of the Pacific Northwest’s transmission capacity, providing a near monopoly on transmission services. Since 2015, the developers of 469 large alternative energy projects have sought access to BPA’s transmission grid. Only one received approval.
In 2026, the state of Washington established a transmission authority with a mandate to expand Washington’s power transmission capabilities.
Meanwhile, threatened and endangered Snake River salmon and steelhead numbers continue to fall. The Nez Perce Tribe’s Fisheries Department warns that a growing number of these fish stocks are approaching quasi-extinction.
In a world with less snow, earlier runoffs, falling fish numbers and cheap solar energy, dark clouds have gathered over the Bonneville Power Administration. The agency’s near monopoly on transmission appears to be slipping away.
A notable fish scientist, Dr. Rick Williams, recently opined “The lower Snake River dams will never be breached for biological reasons; they will only be breached for economic reasons.”
Like cracks in a dam, those economic reasons have arrived.
—Linwood Laughy, Moscow, Idaho; May 29, 2026