Twenty-five years ago, Bill Clinton stopped Grand Coulee Dam’s huge irrigation project planned for one million acres of irrigated farm land — 330,000 acres short. Maybe it was to save jack rabbit habitat. But the economic damage he caused to our state was greater than if he had shut down Boeing and Seattle.
Grand Coulee Dam is one of the state’s most valuable assets. Yet, few on the west side could find it on a map. It is largest hydroelectric power plant in the U.S., and one of the largest in the world, and it was idled by Obama to force wind power’s higher electric rates on consumers.
Grand Coulee transformed Washington’s dry mid-section into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.
The Clinton/Obama “sound good” desert ecology policies haven’t saved one rabbit! And they have already cost your state more than $500 billion and tens of millions in lost lease revenue from state land and your school funds. Farm production and exports from the once dry Columbia Basin rival Boeing’s contribution to the state’s wealth. And, unlike Boeing, the farmers pay state and county taxes. And they pay for every gallon of water they are allowed to have.
When Donald Trump said he wants to make America great again, I hope it will include making Grand Coulee Dam grand again.
