[2] Niners Say BPA Must Continue Fish Passage Center Funding

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court ruled yesterday that BPA illegally cut funding to the Fish Passage Center after report language in a Congressional spending bill ordered them to end support for the 11-person group. The language was added to the bill by Idaho Sen. Larry Craig (R) who was furious that FPC analyses of fish survival were used by environmental groups in their successful push to get a federal judge to boost spill at federal dams, part of ongoing litigation over hydro operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The FPC was scheduled to be defunded by last March, but the Niners ruled then that the power marketing agency had to keep the Center going until the court decided the case, which was brought by the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association and the Yakama Indian Nation.

The Court ruled that the report language does not carry the force of law. It also said that BPA did not show a "rational basis" for transferring FPC data gathering and analysis functions to the Pacific States Marine Fish Commission and Battelle and ordered that BPA must continue funding and supporting the FPC "unless and until it has established a proper basis for displacing the FPC."

"It's clearly another disappointing decision on the Ninth Circuit level," said Craig spokesman Dan Whiting. He said the effect of the decision on the use of report language is unclear at this point, but noted that the vast majority of directions for spending levels comes in congressional report language. "The result could be a tilt in power," he said, noting that Craig's language that killed FPC funding was included in the original spending bill, and could have been questioned or deleted any number of times by other members of Congress. -B. R.

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