"Environmentalist Calls to Tear Down Dams Won’t Save Salmon But Will Waste Your Money" | John Stossel

John Stossel talks to various dam experts.
Click to see the vid."←" to return here

Gavin Newsome, Governor of CA, tells us that it was necessary to destroy dams in Northern CA, so that the tiny Delta Smelt and the Sockeye Salmon could roam free. 

I thought when I heard this, that there had to be other ways to solve this fishy issue, as in spillways to allow the Smelt and Salmon to pass. I mean, we can be all in favour of fish to roam free, but do we really have to destroy dams to let them?

Turns out that spillways -- in the form of "fish ladders" -- have happened. But the  Greens keep pushing for dam destruction, because they're so invested, emotionally, in doing this. 

Fish ladders explained here

The vid at top shows what's been done -- in that case in Washington State's Snake River. So that now 98-99% of Salmon make it through, past the dams, via "fish ladders". The same would be true of dams in CA. 

And... and... and:  the much bigger threat to Sockeye Salmon is now Seals and Sea-Lions, not getting past dams. Go figure that!

This is critical, because of the water that used to be diverted to Southern CA, but is now spilled into the sea. Which Newsome tells us we must do, because, you know, biodiversity, 'n all.

This is yet another case of the Great Thomas Sowell's dictum: "There are no Solutions, only Trade-offs". If you've traded off less water in LA, which contributed to their fearsome wildfires, well, what's the benefit in terms of Delta Smelt and Salmon saved? Do we even know this? $300 Billion in destroyed homes, 30 deaths, thousands without homes, on the one side. On the other side: how many fish saved? Trade off. 

And there's another trade-off. As Stossel notes in the above vid. Namely that the amount of clean, reliable, always-on electricity generated by those destroyed dams in WA, was about the same as the electricity generated by wind farms. Imagine telling Greens that you were going to destroy all the wind farms in the state. Because of a fish, not even endangered. You can't have everything. It's all a matter of Trade Offs. No "solutions", only trade-offs.