Take Action: No Underwater Power Line

Dear Governor Ferguson:

The Columbia River is facing an unprecedented threat, and I urge you to publicly oppose this project and ultimately deny EFSEC’s Draft Site Certification Agreement to stop this project. 

The Cascade Renewable Transmission project, aka the Underwater Power Line, would involve burying a 100-mile, high-voltage power line under the Columbia River, impacting Clark, Skamania, and Klickitat counties. If approved, this would be the first in-river electrical transmission line in the Pacific Northwest. 

Not all energy projects are created equal. New energy development should not repeat the mistakes of old energy systems. Historic energy development on the Columbia was extractive and came at a price for the river and those who depend on it. This powerline project would continue that trend. 

The Power Line poses numerous risks for sensitive and culturally important species like salmon, threatens the water quality, and could impact how river communities use the Columbia for generations. Risks include but are not limited to:

• Impacts to Columbia River salmon and other aquatic species, including lamprey, eulachon, and sturgeon;
• Threats to treaty-protected resources, including potential impacts to Tribal fisheries, First Foods, and culturally significant riverbed areas.
• Impacts on river and sediment habitats;  
• Concerns about the project’s 50-year lifespan and the project’s end-of-life impacts and cleanup;
• Impacts from earthquakes; 
• Impacts from vessel or anchor strikes;
• Impacts on water quality—specifically, heat pollution from the cable, water cloudiness from project construction and repair, and impacts on fish from the line’s electromagnetic field; and 
• Potential impacts from disturbed sediment at Superfund sites and cleanup sites along the project footprint.

I also have concerns about the lack of transparency around who this energy will serve. While the project is framed as serving urban consumers, there are no guarantees it won’t instead serve big tech and data centers. Additionally, it remains unclear whether, and how much, the Power Line would actually transmit renewable energy made from wind and solar. So far, there are no binding promises that the energy transmitted will be solely from clean sources, and not fossil or nuclear energy. 

Today, I ask you to publicly oppose this project and be a leader in thoughtful energy siting. This project is an unprecedented experiment, and the Columbia River is not a place for experiments.

Sincerely,