Herald and News

Letter to the Editor

February 1, 2012

   Department of the Interior reports and public forums on the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement have referenced “scientific studies” — thousands of pages and figures designed to prove few real and many imagined KBRA benefits. Bureaucrats, scientists, and economists with majors in creative writing spent millions to document these benefits. The latest report even counts “non-use benefits”, i.e. people living at the other end of the country feeling good about the KBRA! Benefits are “valued” at $15.6 billion. What an insult to our intelligence! Let’s simplify the KBRA to what it is:

   Five special interest groups (“stakeholders”) got together to write their wish list:

   • Pacific Power wanted someone else to pay for dam relicensing.  

   • Irrigators wanted subsidized (“affordable”) power rates.

   • Indian tribes wanted 92,000 acres of timberland.

   • Environmentalists wanted the Klamath River restored to original flow.

   • Commercial fishermen wanted more salmon.

   None of the stakeholders wanted to pay for their wishes. So, they wrote a KBRA where ratepayers pay for everything. The stakeholders agreed their KBRA worked for them. The public realized they were getting fleeced.  

   So, instead of destroying the dams:

   • Make only limited dam upgrades to relicense. The Environmental Protection Agency and Endangered Species Act drop their unreal demands, and Warren Buffett funds the limited upgrades.

   • The U.S. Agricultural Subsidy Program pays irrigators a power subsidy.

   • The Bureau of Indian Affairs pays the tribes $21 million to buy their tree farm.

   • The environmental and commercial fishermen organizations pay the added costs of any additional dam modifications they want.  

   This simplified KBRA would meet most stakeholder wishes. One-time and recurring costs would be dramatically lower, dam removal negatives avoided, and nobody needs to invent phony benefits to sell a $1.5 billion scam. There would be lawsuits, but they will happen no matter what is done.

   Svend Hoyer-Nielsen

   Klamath Falls