News

Understanding how ocean conditions affect salmon, especially as the climate warms, is a priority of the Fish and Wildlife Program. NOAA presented findings on 2023 ocean conditions for salmon and steelhead, and explained how actions taken in freshwater can improve ocean survival.

The public can help inform early preparations for the Council’s next power plan, and guide formation of an advisory committee on the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the Pacific Northwest’s power system.

New data on electric vehicles, data centers, and computer chip manufacturing suggests a shifting trend. Power demand in these sectors is growing, and over the next five years this demand could grow substantially.

IDFG continues to improve habitat in the Potlatch watershed, the largest spawning area for wild steelhead in the lower Clearwater River.

Directors of North Idaho utilities talk about the pressures they face: significant load growth, changing demographics, aging infrastructure, rate increases, and extreme weather events.

The 2021 Plan Resource Strategy called for the region to build at least 3,500 megawatts of renewable resources by 2027, and region has already built 3,200 megawatts since the Plan was released.

The Council’s mid-term assessment for its 2021 Power Plan reviews the region’s progress in implementing the plan, which forecasts electricity demand 20 years into the future.

The Council joins in mourning the loss of Ted Strong, Yakama Nation elder, leader, and former executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Our resource policy analyst reviews the 2022 regional and national carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation, highlighting the current downward trend on emissions as coal plants retire.

At its January meeting, the Council was briefed on one of the Council’s longtime projects to reduce the impact of a key predator on migrating juvenile salmonids in the Columbia River Basin—northern pikeminnow.