URGENT: Endangered Salmon & Orcas at Risk

Pacific Northwest Representatives Newhouse, McMorris Rodgers, Herrara Beutler, and Schrader have moved the Salmon Extinction Act (H.R. 3144) that would prevent action, modification, engineering plan- or even study of the Columbia River dams to save the region’s dying wild salmon! The purpose of H.R. 3144 is to overrule two U.S. District court decisions that have ruled federal hydropower management plans illegal for violating the Endangered Species Act and risking the extinction of wild salmon with their operations.

Call your U.S. Representative today and ask them to OPPOSE the Salmon Extinction Act (H.R. 3144).

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Subject:

Please oppose HR 3144

Dear Representattive

As a constituent who cares about saving endangered wild salmon and steelhead and preserving the Pacific Northwest way of life, I urge you to vote NO on H.R. 3144. Please reject any measures that would overturn valid court orders and would undermine our environmental laws.

This legislation is based on misleading and false claims about the value of four deadbeat dams on the lower Snake River. The bill would lock in status quo system dam operations that are proving deadly to wild salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey, and are wasting taxpayers' money when economically viable alternatives are available. These status quo conditions have already been repeatedly rejected as inadequate and illegal by the courts.

Wild salmon, steelhead and Pacific lamprey are dying by the thousands due to those four outdated dams, which cost taxpayers millions to maintain and repair. Meanwhile, energy produced by these dams can be economically and efficiently replaced by clean energy alternatives. The dams' primary purpose, barge shipping, has declined nearly 70 percent since 2000.

In five different rulings over 16 years, federal courts have rejected plans that would continue these business-as-usual operations. This failure has already cost regional ratepayers and federal taxpayers billions without recovering a single endangered salmon run.

HR 3144 further ignores my voice and those of hundreds of thousands of people who in the past year have spoken out for dam removal, which scientists say is the single best thing we can do to save wild salmon.

Listen to your constituents: Preserve our iconic salmon and Pacific Northwest way of life by rejecting H.R. 3144.

Regards, Your Name

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Some suggested talking points/scripts:

Some suggested talking points:

Please tell Congressman/Congresswoman________ to oppose H.R. 3144 regarding the Columbia and Snake River dams. Bonneville Power Administration and federal agencies have already spent over $15 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer money on fish recovery efforts without recovering a single salmon population along the Columbia and Snake River. H.R. 3144 would overrule two decades of court orders that have ruled in favor of restoring a free-flowing Snake River- with increased spill over dams and consideration of dam breaching on the Snake River to restore threatened and endangered salmon. We cannot set a precedent where policymakers overrule decades of court decisions and science to cater to special interests and allow iconic species that are vital to a region’s economy and cultural heritage to disappear. Thank you for your time.
Please tell Congressman/Congresswoman________ to oppose H.R. 3144 regarding the Columbia and Snake River dams. We do not need to “save” the dams, but we do need to save our wild salmon from extinction. If the lower four Snake River dams were to go down, there will still be over 80,000 more dams in the U.S. Salmon and orcas bring in billions of dollars to the Pacific Northwest economy, but they are spiraling towards extinction because those dams are obstructing their migration and warming the water. We cannot set a precedent where policymakers overrule decades of court decisions and science to cater to special interests and allow iconic species that are vital to a region’s economy and cultural heritage to disappear. Thank you for your time.
Please tell Congressman/Congresswoman________ to oppose H.R. 3144 regarding the Columbia and Snake River dams. H.R. 3144 would overrule two decades of court orders that have ruled in favor of restoring a free-flowing Snake River to restore threatened and endangered salmon. A recent poll shows that four in five Washington voters say preventing the extinction of wild salmon in the state is very important, and a majority of voters would choose preserving our salmon over dams. It’s clear that the Washington sponsors of H.R. 3144 are out of touch with their constituents and are catering to special interests. We cannot set a precedent where policymakers overrule decades of court decisions and science to cater to special interests and allow iconic species that are vital to a region’s economy and cultural heritage to disappear. Thank you for your time.