XML FeedsNot Saving Salmon Could Cost Taxpayers Billions
By CostBenefit on Nov 3, 2009 | In Water, Land + Water, Economic Development and Green Jobs, Endangered Species, Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Washington & Oregon, Regulatory Analysis, Research Institute NGO NonProfit, Costs and Benefits, Opinion (Not Likely Ours EV&CBN), Free Report at Time of Entry, Socio-Political-Cognitive-Economics | Send feedback »
Link: http://capwiz.com/taxpayer/issues/alert/?alertid=14178071
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Representatives McDermott (D-WA) and Petri (R-WI) have introduced H.R. 3503, the Salmon Solutions and Planning Act, to help save billions of taxpayer dollars by ensuring that the best available science and economics are used to recover salmon to the Columbia and Snake River Basin. If action is not taken, wild salmon and steelhead fish in the Pacific Northwest run the risk of becoming extinct and saddling taxpayers with the expensive legal and economic consequences.
The federal government has already spent $8 billion on failed salmon recovery tactics, including ridiculous efforts that load fish onto barges and drive them hundreds of miles downstream to the ocean. To date, this and none of the other attempts to "improve" fish survival rates have helped restore salmon and have left taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions for the unsuccessful programs.
The costs don't end there. The U.S. has legal obligations to Columbia Basin tribes and Canada and will face tens of billions of dollars in lawsuits concerning treaty abrogation should the recovery efforts fail. Moreover, if the fish become extinct, the Columbia River Basin region would face the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the commercial and sport fishing industry.
It is clear current recovery efforts are failing. All options for restoring salmon, including the removal of the four dams on the Lower Snake River must be thoroughly evaluated and the limitless spending of the past must be abandoned. It's time Congress begins seriously considering all options for salmon recovery and stop wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.
Taxpayers for Common Sense www.taxpayer.net
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