American Whitewater has joined a lawsuit aimed at scuttling retroactive use of the new Energy Bill. Retroactive use of the new hydro rules in the energy bill would impact numerous rivers that American Whitewater is actively participating in, including projects in California, Washington, and New Hampshire. At stake are a dam removal, fish passage, river flows, and water quality. As our members are well aware, AW prides ourselves on using litigation as an absolute last resort. In this case, AW and our partners are acting responsibly to correct a legal wrongdoing after we have exhausted all other options. We hope that this lawsuit will result in protecting the milestones we have reached through years of hard work on several great rivers.
A coalition – including American Rivers , Trout Unlimited, American Whitewater, Idaho Rivers United, Friends of the River, and Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper – has filed the suit, charging that the new hydro rules illegally allow challenges to already finalized measures that protect rivers from dams. The complaint also challenges federal agencies for illegally publishing the new rules as “final” without ever having provided the opportunity for public comment on the draft rules.
“The public deserves to have a voice in how our rivers are managed,” said Steve Moyer, Vice-President of Government Affairs for Trout Unlimited, a party to the lawsuit. “The new rules stack the deck in favor of dams, at the expense of fish that need healthy rivers to thrive."
The coalition is being represented by Jan Hasselman, an attorney at Earthjustice in Seattle.
For more informaiton on the suit, contact:
Robbin Marks, American Rivers , (202) 347-7550 ext. 3051
Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice 206-343-7340 ext. 25
Kevin Colburn, American Whitewater (208) 882-2711
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