Trump Administration Abandons Deal With Northwest Tribes to Restore Salmon

President Trump pulls federal government out of Columbia River deal with Native tribes.

Obama administration promised to invest billions of dollars in alternative energy sources to be created by tribes.

The deal, which took two years to negotiate, halted decades of lawsuits over the harm federal dams had caused to the salmon that had sustained tribes culturally and economically.

A major component of the agreement was the acknowledgment of the region’s dependence on hydropower and the need to build new sources of energy before removing the dams.

It offered no guarantee of dam removal.

The Biden White House pledged to help tribes develop enough renewable energy sources to replace the output of four dams on the Snake River .