‘Going green now for who?’ Yakama protest clean energy project on sacred site to power data center

Mounting evidence shows that a clean energy project along the Columbia River in Washington near a Yakama sacred site would in large part power a data center

by Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle, May 28. 2026

GOLDENDALE, Wash. – "High up on the Washington side of the Columbia River near the John Day hydroelectric dam, members of the #YakamaNation gathered to protest a clean energy storage project slated to be built on a #SacredTribalSite.

'Supporters of the #Goldendale pumped-hydro energy storage project have said it will help meet growing regional energy demand, and the project developers tout its potential to one day power up to half a million homes without sending harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But mounting evidence shows a large #Datacenter campus could be among the main beneficiaries of that power.

"At the event earlier this month, Yakama leaders and a handful of nonprofits fighting the project in federal court, including Hood-River based #ColumbiaRiverkeeper, called on Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson to intervene after state and federal agencies issued key permits to the project developers, a process 10 years in the making. This was despite a state review finding that it would have 'significant and unavoidable adverse impacts' on Yakama historic sites and culturally significant plants.

"The 700-acre hydrostorage project is slated to be built on the contaminated grounds of an abandoned aluminum smelter formerly owned by #LockheedMartin, and, more broadly, a site that has long encroached on a sacred Yakama site called #Pushpum, meaning the 'Mother of all roots.'

"It’s home to #Yakama #ArchaeologicalSites and dozens of seeds, roots, flowers and shrubs harvested and protected by the tribe, some of which are endemic only to the area.

" 'I know we’re in a time when we need renewable energy, but why on our #RootGrounds? Why on critical #MigratoryCorridors for #hawks, for #SageGrouse and the deers?' asked #ElaineHarvey, a watershed manager at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and a member of the #Yakama’s #KamíłpaBand.

" 'And I say: For who are we building? We’re going green now for data centers,' she said. 'We’re not going green for Washington and Oregon state mandates. We’re going green for data centers.' "

"The project’s owners, the Danish investment firm #CopenhagenInfrastructurePartners, have not disclosed details about who would buy the energy."

Read more:
https://ictnews.org/uncategorized/going-green-now-for-who-yakama-protest-clean-energy-project-on-sacred-site-to-power-data-center/

#NoDatacenters #IndigenousNews #NativeAmericanNews #WashingtonState #Oregon #SacredPlants #ProtectTheSacred #CorporateGreed #RenewablesForPeopleNotCorporations

Public comment extended to September 1st!

Environmental groups criticize #Hanford #nuclear waste cleanup plan

by Eric Tegethoff
Wednesday, July 24, 2024

"A new agreement on plans for cleaning up nuclear waste at the Hanford site in #WashingtonState is receiving pushback from #environmental groups.

"Public comment was originally scheduled to close at the beginning of August but has been extended to Sept. 1 for the Tri-Party Agreement between the U-S Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Ecology.

"Simone Anter, staff attorney and Hanford program director for the nonprofit #ColumbiaRiverkeeper, said the new agreement means changes to the cleanup efforts including how and where the Hanford #NuclearWaste is stored.

"'If new proposals are coming out to ship either grouted or liquid nuclear waste across the region, communities deserve to know that and deserve to have a voice and deserve to be engaged,' Anter contended.

"The agreement for dealing with 177 underground storage tanks at Hanford took four years of closed door negotiations. Columbia #Riverkeeper and other environmental groups worry the new agreement opens the door for a storage method other than #vitrification, which is used to turn high-level waste into glass.

"Anter noted #TribalNations in the region were not consulted about the proposal. She stressed even if they could not be part of the agreement, the agencies should have been considered before it was presented to the public.

"'#Tribal nations are not members of the public. They are government entities and should have been treated as such,' Anter pointed out.

"Anter added members of the public can play a big role in how the 56 million gallons of nuclear waste at Hanford are handled.

"'It's really important that all these cleanup decisions put human health, the #ColumbiaRiver and the environment first,' Anter asserted. 'I think public comments play an enormous role in reminding the #TPA agencies about this."

Source:
https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2024-07-24/nuclear-waste/environmental-groups-criticize-hanford-nuclear-waste-cleanup-plan/a91457-1

#WaterIsLife #NoDumping
#FutureGenerations
#NoWar #NoNuclearWeapons
#RethinkNotRestart #NuclearWaste #HanfordNuclearSite

#StopGTNXpress #NoFrackedGas

From #DeSmog:

"Opponents of GTN Xpress – including the governors of Washington, Oregon, and California – say that TC Energy and other utilities involved are using faulty projections of rising demand to justify the project. The attorneys general of all three states have formally asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (#FERC) to reject the proposal."

“What is compelling in this case is the level of state, community, tribal, ratepayer opposition across the region, and the company not being able to clearly identify the need,” Dan Serres, conservation director for #ColumbiaRiverkeeper, told DeSmog. “This is a real opportunity for the Biden administration to show that it takes #ClimateChange seriously, takes #EnvironmentalJustice seriously, and takes community and state input seriously.”

Background:

TC Energy’s proposal would expand the GTN pipeline to carry nearly 55 billion cubic feet of additional methane gas from British Columbia through the U.S. Northwest to northern California, despite mandates by most of the state governments along the way to sharply cut carbon pollution within a decade. Credit: Rogue Climate.