A Republican’s quixotic quest against dam removal
Water is flowing unimpeded down the Klamath River to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in more than a century — and Rep. Doug LaMalfa is depressed. “It’s our worst defeat since I’ve been a legislator,” he said in an interview ahead of PacifiCorp’s emptying of three reservoirs on the Klamath River in order to demolish the dams that stand in front of them. It’s the largest dam removal project in the country, and it’s a harbinger of the shifting politics around rivers in the age of climate change. The traditional fault lines that have long pitted anti-dam environmentalists and tribes against pro-dam farmers and utilities, who benefit from their water and electricity, are blurring. … LaMalfa knows times are changing. “I feel like just one anti-aircraft gunner with 10,000 enemy fighter planes coming at you at once,” he said.