Climate Change: Our Greatest Challenge...Except for a Few Others

One year ago, I wrote a piece arguing that the environmental community doesn't really care about climate change. How else to explain the many counterproductive policies some advocate? I wrote that "In Washington state, green power advocates actively oppose our largest source of renewable energy that emits no carbon – hydro power. While they claim that no new sources of significant hydro power exist, they added additional barriers by classifying major hydro as non-renewable in the renewable energy initiative passed last year."

More evidence of their disdain for clean hydro appeared today.

An op-ed in the Seattle Times, written by two environmental activists, argues for tearing down the Snake river dams. They argue, without a hint of irony, that "Climate change makes removing the dams even more important, because the salmon and steelhead that will be saved are more likely to survive warmer temperatures."

The dams provide more than 1,000 Megawatts of average power. According to the BPA, we would need to install more than 2,000 wind turbines to make that up. The Stateline wind project, by way of comparison, will produce only about 100 average MW.

Washington state has one of the lowest rates of per capita carbon emissions in the country. Hydro power is the key reason for those low emissions. Undermining that clean energy source with the hope that we can replace the capacity with a massive, and expensive, wind power project is sheer folly. Wind power can be a good source of future energy, but some environmental activists want to dig a hole in the hopes that wind power will dig us out. That strategy can only undermine efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.

Maybe they don't care.