DESTROYING HYDROELECTRIC POWER

Throughout the United States, the large enviro groups and other an-titechnologists (spell that "antihuman,'' for it is the humans that technology supports whom they really wish to eliminate) are attacking any sort of energy generation that works and claiming to support alternative technologies - which are essentially defined as those that are not practical for significant energy generation. While nuclear power remains quarantined and attention is focused on the attempt to dismantle part of the hydrocarbon energy system by means of a global warming treaty, hydroelectric power, an inexpensive and completely clean technology bequeathed to us from previous generations, is under attack.

The formula for assault on America's hydroelectric dams is now standardized. First, it is claimed that the dam interferes with fish migration and needs to be modified with updated fish passage devices. Then the price of the modifications is artificially inflated, so that it exceeds the cost of tearing down the dam and also exceeds the income from the dam. After that, discussion moves to who will pay for the destruction.

Long ago all dams were required to be registered and licensed by government. Now, if the dam owners or users do not pay for modifications - which are deliberately priced as high as necessary to exceed their ability to pay, then the dam's license is not renewed. Many dams are currently caught in this web of deceit, and now one has succumbed.

In The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 1997, p B4, Neil Ulman reports the plight of the 160-year old Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Augusta, Maine. Clinton Administration bureaucrats demanded $10 million in dam modifications, claiming that they would help the fish (the opposite may actually be true), while the dam owner said it could accomplish the same objective with $1.5 million in modifications. Now, this 3.5 megawatt dam has been ordered destroyed.

Gloating over their victory, one Margaret Bowman, "director of hydropower'' for the enviros that call themselves "American Rivers'' said, "This case goes beyond relicensing. The federal government has until now viewed dams as permanent structures on the landscape. This recognizes that they have a finite lifecycle.'' In support of her demand that the company pay for the destruction of its own dam, she said, "As a child, I was taught that when you're finished playing in the sandbox, you should pick up your toys before you go home.'' Next to fall may be the 125-foot high, 10-megawatt Project Dam built in 1913 in Washington State. Once again, fish passage is standing in for the Spotted Owl as a completely contrived and hypocritical excuse. Several other western hydroelectric dams are also near destruction. The Savage Rapids irrigation dam on the Rogue River in Southern Oregon is also slated for destruction - again because farmers are unable to pay a cost of fish passage modifications that has been artificially inflated by enviro bureaucrats and antitechnologists.

The envy that drives these haters of humans and human accomplishments will never be satiated. It will devour all that it can.

•	Global Liars
•	A TYRANNY OF WASTED MINDS
•	LETTER TO THE EDITOR
•	CANCER PREVENTION BY RADIATION
•	*DESTROYING HYDROELECTRIC POWER*
•	SOCIALISM BY CONSENSUS
•	GLOBAL WARMING AMMUNITION
•	STARK RAVING MAD
•	GOOD READING

Vol. 25, No. 4

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 25, No. 4

Date: December 01, 1997 03:35 PM
Title: Global Liars