“It is stunning that during a serious legislative debate on carbon reduction, Governor Brown supports a course of action that is estimated to increase CO2 emissions by over 2 million metric tons – every year,” ORECA Executive Director Ted Case said in a statement. “This output is the equivalent of adding 421,000 passenger cars to the region’s roads each year. If the state of Oregon is serious about addressing climate change, they are now moving in the wrong direction.”

Brown’s spokeswoman, Kate Kondayen, says the governor’s letter has been taken out of context.

“While the letter says the most certain and scientific way to recover salmon and benefit orcas is to remove the dams, it does not ‘call for’ tearing them out; instead, Oregon is asserting that we see value in analyzing a future without the dams in the long term, but focusing any definitive next steps on working together to identify a viable path forward to that future with interim steps such as flexible spill agreements,” Kondayen says in an email.

“As the Governor clearly states in the letter, the region has not done adequate analysis of how to replace the power, water, and transportation benefits of the dams. Oregon has worked collaboratively to explore creative solutions that balance salmon recovery and sustainable power generation, as the region needs to work to a future where salmon and clean power coexist. Governor Brown’s emphasis is on that process of analysis and coming to agreement on a long-term vision.”