We in the news business attach great significance to the questions posed by policymakers and lawyers. It thus was fascinating to read a summary of what was asked in Portland last week by NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco and White House Council on Environmental Quality chairwoman Nancy Sutley.
It is notable that two of President Obama’s top science and environment officials chose to make such an early entry into the decades-long conflict between salmon conservation and the Columbia Basin hydroelectric system. This suggests they regard it as important and really want to get to the bottom of this knotty controversy.
Both officials have expertise in water issues, with Lubchenco having formerly been an OSU zoology professor specializing in oceans. The scientists, government officials and Indian tribes speaking with them must have felt like a long, bad dream ended following long years of profit-motivated decisions by the Bush administration.