PPC Pushes Back On Columbia River Spill Injunction Request - 12/15/25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 Contact: Scott Simms, ssimms@ppcpdx.org / 503-595-9770

December 15, 2025

Plaintiffs in federal litigation seek actions that would hobble clean hydropower, drive up electricity costs by $152-$169 million annually, increase the risk of blackouts, and add more harmful carbon emissions – all without proven benefits to fish

PORTLAND, OR — The Public Power Council (PPC), representing nearly 100 consumer-owned electric utilities across the Pacific Northwest, today filed its opposition to the motions for a preliminary injunction in long-running federal litigation over operations of the Columbia River System. PPC has been involved in this case since it was initiated almost 25 years ago, when PPC responded to the original Complaint.

PPC’s filing warns that the relief sought by plaintiffs – expanded spill requirements and tighter minimum operating pool limits at eight lower Columbia and lower Snake River dams – would significantly reduce the region’s most flexible carbon-free electricity resource, impose substantial replacement power and capacity costs on consumers, and increase blackout risk during summer heat and other emergency conditions, all without a quantified showing that the requested operations would deliver meaningful incremental benefits for salmon and steelhead beyond current operations.

“Public power utilities and the communities we serve are fully committed to salmon recovery – and we have been steadily paying for it, year after year,” said Scott Simms, CEO & Executive Director of the Public Power Council. “But this motion asks the Court to mandate sweeping operational changes with immediate reliability and affordability consequences, without a quantified demonstration that the requested spill and reservoir operations will actually improve fish survival beyond what is already in place.”

Experts say electricity cost hikes and reliability risks are measurable, but plaintiffs’ claims of fish benefits are not quantified

PPC’s opposition is supported by sworn declarations, including an independent analysis by Energy GPS’s Joshua Rasmussen that evaluated the plaintiffs’ proposed spill and reservoir constraints by applying them to historical hourly hydropower operations and modeling the resulting impacts. Rasmussen concludes that the proposed injunction would:

• Eliminate approximately 2 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of carbon-free hydropower production each year;
• Reduce available summer hydropower capability by approximately 1,200–1,400 megawatts (MW), with even larger losses during the most critical high-demand hours;
• Increase replacement energy and capacity costs in 2026 alone to approximately $152 million to $169 million, based on forward market prices and study assumptions; and
• Increase carbon emissions by roughly 815,000 to 881,000 tons of CO₂ in 2026, as lost hydropower is replaced primarily by natural gas generation.

“These losses come at exactly the wrong time,” Simms said. “The Pacific Northwest is already facing tightening resource adequacy margins and rapid load growth. Reducing flexible hydropower during summer heat events materially increases the risk of emergency conditions and higher costs for consumers.”

Meanwhile, Andrew M. Deines, Ph.D., and Managing Scientist at Exponent (and an American Fisheries Society Certified Fisheries Professional), in a separate declaration, explains that plaintiffs’ fisheries expert does not translate the requested operational targets into numerical spill rates, preventing a scientifically robust comparison between current operations and the requested relief. Deines further explains that:

• At today’s already-high spill levels from federal hydro projects, empirical relationships show diminishing marginal returns, meaning additional spill may yield only small incremental biological gains, if any;
• Predictions become increasingly uncertain when extrapolating beyond historically observed operating conditions; and
• Several requested reservoir operations – particularly on the lower Columbia River – would push the system into largely untested operational territory, effectively creating a system-wide experiment.

“We in public power support science-based salmon recovery,” Simms said. “But if plaintiffs want the Court to impose sweeping mandates, they must quantify what they’re asking for and demonstrate the incremental benefit. That showing has not been made.”

Summary of key findings from PPC’s filing

• Significant cost impacts for ratepayers. Energy GPS estimates $152–$169 million in replacement energy and capacity costs in 2026 alone. Public power utilities are not-for-profit and cost-based – meaning increased wholesale costs flow directly to customers.

• Serious grid reliability risks during summer emergencies. The plaintiffs’ requested operations would reduce hydropower’s summer capability by about 1,200–1,400 MW, with impacts reaching as high as roughly 1,700 MW during the most constrained hours analyzed. These reductions occur during the months most exposed to heat-driven scarcity and emergency conditions.

• Higher greenhouse gas emissions. Energy GPS estimates the proposed injunction would increase regional carbon emissions by approximately 815,000 to 881,000 tons of CO₂ in 2026 through electricity purchases from other power producers, undermining state climate goals while worsening conditions that affect salmon habitat.

• No meaningful showing of incremental fish benefit. PPC’s fisheries expert explains that the plaintiffs’ proposal lacks the numerical spill estimates necessary for standard comparative analysis and relies on assumptions that push into areas of diminishing returns and heightened uncertainty.

Legal and policy context

PPC’s opposition explains that the 2020 Biological Opinion, which governs current Columbia River System operations, was developed through extensive scientific analysis under the Endangered Species Act. PPC argues that plaintiffs have failed to meet the high legal threshold required for mandatory preliminary injunctive relief – particularly given the scale of the requested changes and the substantial reliability and economic impacts identified by PPC’s experts.

“Courts don’t issue mandatory injunctions based on speculation or policy disagreements,” Simms said. “The standard is evidence. The record here does not support imposing sweeping operational mandates with region-wide consequences.”

The filing also underscores that public power utilities already fund one of the largest fish and wildlife restoration programs in the world through Bonneville Power Administration rates.

Advocating for a non-litigation path ahead

Consistent with PPC’s publicly-stated position on this case, the filing urges the Court to deny the requested injunction and encourage a collaborative, science-based path forward.

“After more than two decades of litigation, it should be clear that court-ordered operational mandates are not a durable solution,” Simms said. “The region needs a negotiated approach that supports salmon recovery, respects Tribal treaty rights, protects grid reliability, and keeps power affordable for the people of the Northwest.”

Note to Media: PPC’s news release and filings in pdf form are available upon request at ssimms@ppcpdx.org. For Portland market TV media, PPC can be available with advance notice this week for stand-ups at the Bonneville Lock and Dam:

Bonneville Lock & Dam in North Bonneville, WA United States - Apple Maps

About the Public Power Council

The Public Power Council is a nonprofit association representing consumer-owned electric utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada. PPC members include public utility districts, municipal utilities, and rural electric cooperatives that collectively serve approximately 1.5 million electricity consumers. PPC advocates for reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible power supplies, with a strong commitment to fish and wildlife recovery in the Columbia River Basin.

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