Again this year, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden nixed a plan to generate much needed power on the Columbia and Snake Rivers during the lull between major spring and fall salmon runs. He made his ruling despite the fact that a big chunk of the electricity sales would be used to further restore salmon habitat in the region.

Earlier this spring, the Judge said he didn’t want to get involved in micromanaging the river, but that is precisely what he did. He ordered operators to open the spillways at Lower Granite, Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams on the Snake and McNary on the Columbia. And his call for a “new spirit of collaboration among federal officials, environmentalists, tribes, and others,” should be recognized for what it is: A poorly masked charade.

Last year, Redden overturned a plan approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to re-route water from the spillways of Ice Harbor, John Day, The Dalles and Bonneville dams to the penstocks to generate more electricity.

At the time, Redden said he didn’t want anyone to think that he ignored the region’s electric ratepayers when he ruled the government must continue its summer spill programs rather than generate more electricity. But what he really did was simply choose fish over working families and conveniently ignore other critical factors that are depleting salmon runs.

For example, why hasn’t Redden addressed the problem of Caspian terns that consume millions of young salmon migrating to the ocean? That area is not the terns’ natural habitat; they migrated to the lower Columbia to nest on an artificial island created by dredging material.

The conflict over “spill” arose when federal agencies, after exhaustive studies costing electric ratepayers billions, moved to cut short the release of water over dam spillways. But Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (a proponent of removing the four lower Snake River dams), tribes and environmental groups sued to stop the plan.

This year’s plan would have saved ratepayers $67 million during July and August. Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire said it meant a $1 a month increase in a Seattle City Light residential power bill. Last year, extra power sales would have cut charges to Northwest household and commercial ratepayers by $18 million to $28 million.

In 2004, NMFS studies showed changes in dam operations may kill 100 to 900 young Snake River fall Chinook heading down river. But the agency said the release of additional water from Brownlee reservoir, for example, would increase survival of the threatened stock by 700 to 1,100 fish. The same types of tradeoffs could occur this year if Redden hadn’t stepped in.

While his decision may seem trivial, what really is at stake is President Bush’s ten year, $6 billion plan to make federal dams on the rivers more salmon friendly. Rather than breaching Snake River dams, the President wants to install technology easing fish passage over the dams, including barging and trucking young salmon around the impoundments. Even though this alternative would reduce the mortality of juvenile salmon, activists oppose the measure because a “solution” would lessen support for their goal of removing the dams.

The bottom line is the 9th U.S. Circuit Court can overturn Redden’s decision, but it may ultimately take Congress and the Northwest governors to step in and take charge. They must look at all the factors influencing salmon and steelhead runs, not just the dams or forest or farming practices.

Meanwhile, Gregoire and the governors of Montana and Idaho should take Kulongoski to the woodshed and educate him about common sense and the needs of working families.