The Bonneville Power Administration on July 14 said it is revising future power rates by removing millions of dollars of costs associated with a Biden administration agreement with Northwest tribes aimed at restoring salmon habitat and potentially breaching dams on the Snake River. 

BPA Chief Financial Officer Thomas McDonald detailed the revised power cost projections for the BP-26 rate period in a letter dated July 11 following a Trump administration memorandum in which the president pulled the federal government out of a deal Biden struck with Oregon, Washington and four tribes on four dams along the Snake River in 2023. (See Trump Directs Feds to Withdraw from Deal on Snake River Dams.) 

The deal included payments to the Yakama, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Nez Perce tribes, along with Oregon and Washington. The costs were reflected in BPA’s program forecast issued Oct. 23, 2024. The forecasts serve as an input into the development of rates, according to the letter. 

Under the new forecasts, the agency predicts BPA power rates will see a “slight decrease,” a spokesperson told RTO Insider. 

However, under the updated power cost projections, those payments are removed, including $10.6 million for 2026, $10.8 million for 202 and $11 million for 2028 

Additionally, the agency removed cost projections related to the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan, a hatchery program to return salmon and steelhead to the Snake River Basin.  

The removed cost projections associated with that plan include $11.7 million for 2026, $19.4 million for 2027 and $28.2 million for 2028. 

McDonald noted in the memorandum that removal of the plan cost projections “will not result in a dollar-for-dollar reduction in BPA’s costs.” 

“The Lower Snake Compensation Plan hatchery costs were included as part of BPA’s capital cost projections, which means that the annual spending is recovered over time rather than in the year it is spent,” McDonald added. “The cost savings will appear as lower interest expense, amortization expense and principal payments.” 

President Donald Trump issued the memo June 12 withdrawing from the 2023 deal that was struck after lengthy litigation about four tribes’ rights to fish in the river. The deal was opposed by other interests in the region including senior Republicans in Congress. (See Parties Split on Biden Administration Deal on Snake River Dams.) 

The deal supported federal investments in a comprehensive plan for salmon restoration, energy development and transportation infrastructure in the Columbia Basin, according to a previous press release from the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. 

The Biden administration was considering breaching four dams that produce more than 3,000 MW, but had not made a final decision. 

The Department of Energy said the Biden-era memo of understanding (MOU) required the government to spend $1 billion to comply with commitments aimed at replacing the dams in the Lower Snake River, including possibly breaching them. 

The June 12 memo directs cabinet secretaries to work to withdraw from the deal and to rescind a supplemental environmental impact statement on the four dams that was published in December 2024.