FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2026
CONTACTS:
Joseph Bogaard, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, 206-300-1003, joseph@wildsalmon.org
Tanya Riordan, Save Our wild Salmon Coalition, 509-990-9777, tanya@wildsalmon.org
Bonneville Power Administration announces plans to raise customer rates while scapegoating efforts to protect endangered salmon from extinction.
The Bonneville Power Administration formally began a process today that would allow it to raise electricity rates. The BPA is a federal agency that markets power produced by the Columbia Basin hydrosystem. It also operates much of the Pacific Northwest’s transmission network.
BPA is moving ahead to adjust its rates in order to generate an additional $250M – an amount that is expected to increase ratepayers' bills up to 6 percent or more.
Statement from Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save Our wild Salmon Coalition:
"Today’s news is disappointing but unsurprising. Falsely blaming salmon for rising energy costs is on page one of BPA’s playbook. For years, BPA and many regional public utilities have scapegoated salmon recovery programs while neglecting the real reasons for rising energy costs – including BPA’s failure over time to maintain aging infrastructure and invest in the grid, energy efficiency, and new renewable resources. New data centers, extreme weather events, wildfire mitigation, and population growth are significant forces today causing rates to rise. While our power system has pressing needs today, pitting healthy salmon populations against a clean and affordable energy system is cynical and misleading.
The Bonneville Power Administration has a legal responsibility to make smart decisions for our regional energy system while also protecting endangered salmon and steelhead populations. It’s required to do both, but with decisions like this, it’s instead choosing to do neither. BPA’s ratepayers, all Northwest residents – and imperiled native fish populations in the Columbia Basin – deserve much better."
See more from Earthjustice here.
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