While I’m in the mood to rant about rivers with four stupid, damaging, need-to-be-removed dams on them, a new study (craftily titled “Revenue Stream”) suggests that removing the four Lower Snake River dams would save taxpayers $5 Billion dollars. (via Moldy Chum.)

These are the same dams that don’t contribute much of anything to the economy but a small amount of energy and cheap shipping for a handful of farmers.
The Quote with the Most:

The study, entitled Revenue Stream, examines the economic impact of dam removal and salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to taxpayer savings of up to $5 billion, the study finds that increased tourism, new outdoor recreation, and improved sport and commercial fishing opportunities could generate more than $20 billion in revenue for the region.

I’d love to see the same cost/benefit methodology applied to the ailing Klamath, where the four PacifCorp-owned dams are putting salmon fishermen out of work up and down the West coast, and all for a meager amount of energy.

Once again, the forces of good and evil meet in the thumb-wrestling match that is bureaucratic process when all “good” really needs are a bunch of houseboats filled with explosives. (For anyone at the NSA listening in, I was just kidding. Really. Don’t hurt me.)

See you behind bars, Tom Chandler.

[tags]lower snake, lower snake river, snake river, revenue stream, klamath, conservation, environment[/tags]

Posted in Environment.