Submitted by Ken Watts
The November 2022 issue of Fall River Flashes had two very good articles. One was in regard to breaching the 4 lower Snake River dams and the other in regard to the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles. The article on breaching the dams has a graph that shows a profound increase in the number of salmon and steelhead counted at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The article states: “All the Lower Snake river Dams have been modernized with multiple fish passage systems including fish ladders, advanced technology turbines, fish screens, and spillways that allow salmon to pass upstream and down with minimal impact.” Breaching the dams would have a very significant impact on the economy of Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. The environmental impact of replacing the stored water, the carbon free energy, and the transportation infrastructure would be enormous. You may recall that Idaho congressional representative, Mike Simpson, has proposed breaching the dams. The Idaho Conservation League is currently making a push to breach the dams. You may also recall that it was Congressman Simpson and the ICL that sold out the people of Custer County over the Boulder-White Clouds wilderness. Now they are attempting to sell out the people of Northern Idaho. On the second topic, FRREC “is helping create an electric vehicle fast-charging network along major corridors in the Intermountain West”. “The kickoff event was held in Island Park, Idaho, to highlight the fact that Fall River will receive nearly $865,000 in grants from the state to install five DC fast chargers in three locations to serve members and visitors.” Governor Brad Little was at the kickoff event, so one could reasonably assume that the grant is coming from the “state” of Idaho. If you do the math, you will find that the tax payers of Idaho, (presumably) are paying $173,000 per charging station. That is some “righteous bucks” so that a dude from California can charge his Tesla! We all know that electric vehicle perform very poorly in cold weather. I was recently talking to a lady who drove her KIA EV6 from Denver to Mesa, in January. Both she and her husband were employed by KIA. They were able to purchase the EV6 at MSRP because they worked for KIA. The average person has to pay about $20,000 over MSRP to get this car. I asked the lady if she had charging anxiety before and during the trip. She said they planned the trip very carefully because of the cold weather and the need to go over 10,000 foot mountain passes. They traveled during the day so that they did not have to use their headlights. They used their seat warmers for heat rather than the car heater system. They also wore heavy boots to keep their feet warm. Wonder if they turned on the stereo? I did not ask. They made it to Mesa OK. Sounds like a delightful trip, doesn’t it!!!!
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Making Sense of It All
This blog will help you make sense out of all the information on the website, how it affects IP, our history, and how efforts continue to put IP into various forms of conservation status. Archives
May 2023
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