Description of Event
Hydroelectric dams in the Northwest deliver carbon-free, low-cost power to communities across the region. First constructed as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the dams brought fair access to electricity to the rural Northwest and paved the way for utilities, including cooperatives like Umatilla Electric to serve our communities.
Today, carbon-free energy and climate friendly policies have become a priority in the northwest and across the nation. Our hydroelectric dams are essential to meeting these energy goals - and retaining our way of life in eastern Oregon. Hydropower provides a great support to solar and wind generation, which have fluctuating electric output. Hydroelectric operators can hold water behind a dam when there is a surplus of solar and wind power. Operators can then release that water into turbines when more power is necessary. The control of the hydro system helps provide critical balance to the grid when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing.
However, hydro offers many benefits beyond just producing carbon-free energy and grid balancing. The lower costs of hydropower are crucial for families and individuals that depend on affordable energy. They’re able to keep their homes comfortable and cover their basic needs by not having to worry about overwhelming electricity bills. Hydropower is good for business too. The low cost of hydropower combined with its carbon-free attributes have attracted companies to locate to the Northwest from across the globe. Their presence adds jobs to the region and grows our local economies.
On a local level, the dams are critical to communities who live near the Columbia and Snake rivers, like ours, and local tributaries. The dams help us save homes and lives by protecting against dangerous floods. Right in our own backyard, where the climate is dry and the summers are hot, the dams help farms irrigate their land. In fact, by using just 6% of the annual runoff from the Columbia River, an additional 7.8 million acres of land has been made farmable. The crops and other goods produced by our local farms are then shipped through the ports via barge, used in partnership with rail cars and semi-trucks. In total, the river system supports over $24 billion in annual exports and imports, and countless jobs and opportunities that extend beyond the Columbia River Basin itself.
Altogether, the benefits of our hydropower system are innumerable and irreplaceable. Even as time has passed and our needs have evolved, the dams continue to offer solutions to our most pressing problems. With issues of climate change and water access looming, hydro will become even more critical.
Unfortunately, access to affordable and reliable electricity is at risk as discussions about breaching of the Lower Snake River Dams continue. Umatilla Electric is working closely with your local, state, and federal representatives to ensure that our valuable hydropower systems remain intact.
Umatilla Electric works with organizations advocating for hydropower, including Northwest River Partners and Voices for Cooperative Power (VCP). Northwest Riverpartners is a member-driven organization that works with state and federal agencies to support the hydro system. VCP is a network of electric co-op members working together to influence elected officials who are making energy policy decisions that impact our co-ops and, by extension, our way of life.
Hydropower is key to ensuring reliable, affordable energy to our members. It is a critical, always available, carbonfree source of electric generation. As our nation depends on electricity to power more of the economy with carbon-free energy, we need more generating resources – not fewer.
No voice matters more than yours when it comes to defending our dams and ensuring that our elected officials support our access to the clean, affordable energy provided by them. Take action with us by signing up for updates from VCP at voicesforcooperativepower.com and engaging in the issues affecting the Northwest’s hydropower system.