Open NPCC’s public comment web form. Fill in your personal details, then come back here to copy the letter template below. Then you just paste the template into the comment box and submit.

Please feel free to personalize your message as to why this issue is important to you. 

Submit your comment by March 2, 2026.

Dear Chair Milburn and Members of the Council,

As a taxpayer and Northwest energy customer, I am deeply concerned about the crisis salmon and steelhead are facing across the Columbia River Basin. We cannot call energy “clean” when it harms a keystone species that our entire region relies upon. 

In the final 2026 Fish and Wildlife Program, I urge you to adopt all of the recommendations from state and Tribal fish managers throughout the region, to whom the Council owes deference under the Northwest Power Act. In particular – 

(1) Include elevated levels of spill through August 31st as a priority measure to help protect outmigrating juvenile salmon and steelhead. These fall runs account for a disproportionately large number of the wild adults that return to the Columbia and Snake rivers.

(2) Include explicit accountability measures for achieving Program goals, especially with regard to ensuring Bonneville Power Administration (a) meets its obligation to protect, mitigate and enhance all fisheries impacted by the hydro system and (b) addresses all necessary hydropower measures in the Ninth Power Plan with a whole-of-government approach. 

(3) Acknowledge Lower Snake River dam removal as a necessary action. Established science clearly demonstrates that removing these dams will have the single largest impact on the recovery of salmon and steelhead stocks in the Columbia and Snake Rivers and is an essential measure for achieving the Council’s interim goal of an average 5 million adult salmon and steelhead returning to the Basin each year. 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I hope the Council will seize this vital opportunity for our region to chart a course towards affordable, efficient, and reliable energy generation that also protects and restores abundant fish populations. Future generations are depending on it.