Capital Bureau

SALEM — This summer’s harsh fire season left behind economic damages that Oregon officials and members of the business community are still trying to quantify.

Although the state is still researching the extent of the impact, economic development officials want to ask the Legislature in the upcoming short legislative session for funds for low-interest loans for small businesses affected by wildfires, perhaps triggered by an official disaster declaration by the governor.

Reduced revenues and cash flow for businesses due to disruptive wildfires this summer could impact their credit ratings and their access to capital, Jason Lewis-Berry, director of Regional Solutions and jobs and economy policy adviser to Gov. Kate Brown, told legislators on Tuesday.

The state’s employment department said late last month that the fires didn’t impact the unemployment rate statewide, but certain regions suffered higher job losses in September.

About 600 more leisure and hospitality jobs in Central Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge and southwest Oregon were cut in September than is typical, according to the Oregon Employment Department.

Lewis-Berry said the state is still collecting data on lodging tax receipts and insurance claims, which may provide a fuller picture of the economic impact.

Special wildfire recovery councils in Southwest Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge are also working on recommendations to help local economies bounce back. In those areas, the Chetco Bar and Eagle Creek Fires were particularly severe.

“We’re trying to have this be a data-driven and locally-driven process to inform the kind of support we can deliver,” Lewis-Berry said.

Broader economic impacts were also felt in Eastern Oregon — not only did fires affect air quality, but road closures of Interstate 84 on the state’s northern border likely impacted summer travel and commerce to and from Eastern Oregon, Lewis-Berry told legislators Tuesday.

“Even though Eastern Oregon technically wasn’t directly impacted by the fires, you certainly had a lot of people and businesses that were due to the road closures,” Lewis-Berry said.

The interstate was closed 19 days eastbound and eight days westbound. State economists calculated that each day the interstate was closed cost shippers an extra $250,000 to $290,000, Lewis-Berry said.

He added that the state parks department also estimates that it lost $157,000 in expected revenues due to fire season, while needing an additional $150,000 for restoration costs at state parks.

While wildfires are nothing new for the state’s rural areas east of the mountains, poor air quality due to smoke brought the wildfire issue front and center in the state’s cities as well this summer, including Portland, Eugene and Salem. It also led to closures of popular events across the state.

Cycle Oregon, an annual cycling tradition in Central and Southern Oregon, was canceled, as were some outdoor performances at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. This year’s Sisters Folk Festival west of Bend also got the ax.

As a result, Lewis-Berry said, the fire season posed a threat to the Oregon “brand” of world-class tourism and recreation, which Travel Oregon and other groups are trying to protect.

There are also environmental concerns in areas affected by fire, such as watershed problems and soil erosion, which could also lead to public safety and public health issues.

But the wildfires aren’t likely to stop anytime soon — which may require local economies to adapt.

“We really need to think about economic resilience in communities that could be affected by fires in the future,” Lewis-Berry said.

Mark Johnson, president and CEO of Oregon Business and Industry, a business lobbying group, and chair of the local recovery council for the Eagle Creek Fire on the Columbia Gorge, agreed.

Johnson, who stepped down from his post as a state representative from Hood River earlier this month, said that the Columbia River Gorge communities needed more year-round jobs that weren’t dependent on a “somebody from Portland coming out to either buy an ice cream cone or a pint of beer.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A stubborn rancher’s refusal to recognize federal authority in the West will be presented to a jury in Las Vegas, where a trial is set to start Tuesday for cattleman Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and a co-defendant accused of leading a 2014 armed standoff against government agents.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre, the lead prosecutor, has accused the Bundys of trying to instigate a “range war” against federal agents who were enforcing lawful court orders after Bundy racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid fees and penalties letting cattle graze for decades in what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

Defense attorneys say the four men didn’t conspire with anyone and didn’t wield weapons. They say no shots were fired in the standoff near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Each defendant faces 15 felony charges, including conspiracy, assault and threats against federal officers, firearms counts, obstruction and extortion. Stacked together, convictions on all charges carry the possibility of more than 170 years in prison.

The trial sets up as a test of public land policies in Western U.S. states such as Nevada, where the federal government controls about 85 percent of the land and juries have twice balked at full convictions of men who had guns during the tense April 2014 confrontation.

Bundy argues that his family has used the same public range for more than a century, and the land belongs to the state not the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The trial is expected to be contentious. The 71-year-old Bundy, sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and co-defendant Ryan Payne have been jailed since early 2016, and each refused to enter a plea saying he didn’t recognize the authority of the government. A magistrate judge entered not-guilty pleas for them.

Openings in the long-awaited trial were postponed at the last minute last week, amid a fight about whether prosecutors properly disclosed evidence about surveillance cameras watching the Bundy homestead.

The defendants also asked to be released to a halfway house during proceedings that are expected to take about four months.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro last week ordered Cliven and Ammon Bundy and Payne to remain in custody. She agreed Monday to release Ryan Bundy to halfway house supervision, said Trisha Young, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas.

Ryan Bundy, who is serving as his own attorney, argued he was hampered preparing his case from jail.

The Bunkerville standoff was a precursor to an early 2016 protest in rural eastern Oregon, where Ryan and Ammon Bundy and Payne led a 41-day takeover of a federal wildlife refuge and called for the U.S. government to turn over public land to local control.

A federal jury in Portland refused last year to convict Ryan and Ammon Bundy of any crime. Payne pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, but wants to withdraw his plea and his expected sentence of more than three years in prison.

When Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, a business called Gallery Furniture turned two of their locations into shelters for stranded residents. Now, the stores’ owner, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, is opening his store for a Thanksgiving dinner “for all people who…

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner is no easy feat, but there is one incredible kitchen gadget that will make preparing a feast for friends and family a whole lot easier. The Instant Pot is so much more than an ordinary slow cooker.

The Port of Portland plans to resume shipping through its container terminal next year as part of a deal with an ocean carrier that was announced Nov. 13.

During a recent trade mission to Hong Kong, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown helped strike a deal with the Swire Group to bring container service back to the terminal. London-based Swire Group already provides air cargo service at the port’s Portland International Airport through its Cathay Pacific division.

A mix of general, non-containerized cargo and container service could become available at Terminal 6 as soon as January, most likely on a monthly basis.

“This is a critical first step toward restarting container service at Terminal 6 and will aid in efforts to attract an additional service in the future,” according to a joint press release from Brown and the port.

Container shipping lines stopped calling at the port in 2016 due to productivity slowdowns blamed on a dispute between the terminal operator, ICTSI, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Agricultural exporters have been hurt by the shutdown of container traffic at Terminal 6, as they were forced to ship straw and other farm products through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

SALEM — The Oregon Supreme Court is considering a dispute over a landfill that’s expected to resolve a broader question about allowable impacts on farmland from non-farm development.

Several neighbors of the Riverbend Landfill near McMinnville, Ore., have long been fighting its planned expansion, arguing the larger facility will further disrupt surrounding agriculture.

Landfills and certain other non-farm developments are allowed in areas zoned for “exclusive farm use,” or EFU, as long as they don’t have significant impacts on nearby farmers.

In this case, Yamhill County approved the landfill’s expansion because its owner, Waste Management, agreed to compensate local farmers for the cost of picking up litter and for the damage caused to fruit by defecating birds.

The arrangement was approved by the Oregon Court of Appeals but has failed to satisfy opponents of the landfill, who argue that it allows developers to pay off farmers for adverse effects.

Under Oregon law, conditions imposed on non-farm developments are meant to prevent such negative impacts, rather than simply compensate growers financially, according to landfill critics.

“You’re already taking farmland out of production. We really have to be protective of the farms in the surrounding EFU area or we’re losing more,” said Jeff Kleinman, attorney for the Stop the Dump Coalition and other opponents, during oral arguments on Nov. 13 before the Oregon Supreme Court.

The interpretation of statewide land use law by the Oregon Court of Appeals effectively creates “primacy of non-farm use over the farm use,” contrary to the intent of Oregon lawmakers, Kleinman said.

Tommy Brooks, attorney for Waste Management, disagreed that the Oregon Court of Appeals ruling marked a serious departure from accepted standards for non-farm development in farm zones.

Significant impacts from development are prohibited if they render surrounding farmland unviable for agricultural purposes, such as a pasture that can no longer be grazed by cattle, Brooks said.

However, conditions imposed on a project can mitigate those concerns until they’re no longer significant, he said.

For the hay farmer who was allegedly burdened with litter patrols, the added cost was shifted to Waste Management, he said.

Similarly, another farmer was still able to produce cherries, but Waste Management provided compensation for the crop’s lost value due to alleged bird damage, Brooks said.

“As long as the incremental cost (to the grower) is removed, it cannot be significant,” he said.

During the oral arguments, several Oregon Supreme Court justices questioned whether significant impacts to agriculture are permissible in farm zones under statewide land use law, as long as the developer compensates the grower.

Conditions imposed on non-farm developments can prevent undesirable changes from occurring in the first place, said Justice Martha Lee Walters.

“That’s different than reducing the cost of the change,” she said.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas? Chances are good it has something to do with a tradition that is intertwined with warm and wonderful memories. You may follow the same customs as your parents did during your childhood. Perhaps…

MT. ANGEL, Ore. — Saturday morning 100 workers — the majority of them monks and seminarians — assembled near Mount Angel Abbey for a barn-raising.

Or, more accurately, a brewery-raising.

They raised the frame of the abbey’s new Benedictine Brewery. The job was finished by 5 p.m.

The 3,000-square-foot brewery and tap room will consist almost solely of logs harvested on abbey property.

The abbey was established in 1882 by Swiss monks, who settled on 300 pastoral acres atop a butte just east of Mt. Angel in the Willamette Valley.

They built a community and purchased 600 acres of farmland in the Cascade Foothills, where they planted Douglas fir trees 100 years ago.

“They were 200 feet tall,” volunteer John Gooley said. “The first 160 feet there were no limbs, so we got a lot of clear wood.”

Eight truckloads, to be exact. With others, Gooley began calling contacts made over a 42-year career with Withers Lumber. Hull-Oakes Lumber Co. in Monroe, Ore., cut the entire order in exchange for one truckload. Freres Lumber in Lyons transported a full semi-load of wood.

Universal Forest Products, New Energy Works Timber Frame Homes and others also became involved.

The timber was harvested, cut, dried, milled tongue-in-groove and prepared for a seamless, no-hammer, no-saw construction. This saved the Abbey as much as $100,000.

“It was really awesome,” Gooley said. “We ended up with about 26,000 board-feet of lumber; there were even logs left over. We cut all of their siding, too.”

Construction should be complete in March or April, at which time Benedictine Brewery will begin hosting guests and expanding their beer repertoire. Until now it has consisted of Black Habit, a dark beer, and Saint Benedict, which is pale, brewed at Seven Brides Brewing in nearby Silverton.

Abbey procurator and brew master Father Martin Grassel has worked closely with Abbey Enterprises Manager Chris Jones on the brewery. It will be run by Grassel and Father Jacob Stronach, an intern at Seven Brides and Benedictine breweries. Their new custom-made 5-barrel system has been waiting in the wings for two years.

Benedictine monks in Europe have been brewing beer for more than 1,000 years. In the Middle Ages they supplied beer to the locals because the water was often undrinkable, and breweries became part of the character of European monasteries.

“There’s a vision forming for what we want here,” Grassel said. “We hope people come to our taproom to seek and enjoy good beer, but we also want them to experience something of who we are. … It’s all for the kingdom of God and our brewery must be oriented to that.

“Everybody’s got a brand; everybody’s got a unique character, and ours has to be consistent with who we are as monks,” he said.

Part of that is self-sufficiency through work, and if they didn’t think the brewery was going to be profitable they wouldn’t be doing it, he said.

“We don’t want another operation you have to raise money for,” Grassel said. “Libraries and schools don’t make money and we expect the brewery to help support us — or at least break even.”

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The Hanford Advisory Board says more money is needed to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The board says Congress needs to give Hanford some $4 billion per year to reach cleanup deadlines.

The Tri-City Herald reports Hanford currently receives $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion per year.

The board is composed of people from the Tri-Cities and the Northwest who have an interest in cleaning up the site.

The board at a meeting last week said the current funding level is “dangerous and destructive.”

Hanford is located near the Tri-Cities and for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons. The site is now engaged in cleaning up the resulting radioactive wastes.

VERNAL, Utah (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is hosting three public meetings in Utah this week to gather input on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plans to reassess sage grouse management policies adopted under the Obama administration.

The evening scoping sessions are scheduled Tuesday in Vernal, Wednesday in Cedar City and Thursday in Snowville. They’re the last of a series of meetings held across the West in recent weeks.

Zinke says he wants to make sure the land planning amendments don’t harm local economies.

Conservationists say it’s a thinly veiled attempt to allow more livestock grazing and drilling, similar to President Trump’s efforts to roll back national monument designations. They warn it could land the hen-sized bird on the endangered species list in 2020 when the Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to review its 2015 decision not to list it.

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The Interior Department is set on changing up an Obama-era plan to protect greater sage grouse. That’s given stakeholders in the high-desert Northwest a lot to reconsider.

For more than 10 years, ranchers, conservationists and government agencies worked on a plan to keep the greater sage grouse off the endangered species list. That hard-fought compromise led to what many hoped would be a new way to protect species on the brink.

But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to take another look at the plans, with an eye toward more mining and drilling on public lands. Many in Oregon who have worked hard to save the birds are worried that any roll back of the Obama-era plans could threaten the work that’s been done so far — and lead to the birds’ ultimate landing on the endangered species list.

That could mean more land-use restrictions that many ranchers and industry groups involved in the original plans had hoped to avoid.

“If we make any amendments at all to those federal plans, we do not want a federal listing of the species. We are walking somewhat of a fine line here — there’s a balance here,” said Tom Sharp, a rancher and landowner in Harney County. He was one of several stakeholders in Baker City, Oregon, this week for a gathering called the Sage-Grouse Conservation Partnership — or SageCon, for short.

Both ranchers and conservationists in Oregon have expressed misgivings about the current plans. Some said the secretarial order to open up public comments on the plans could be an opportunity to address those issues.

“Any plan amendments that we make going forward should follow the science,” Sharp said. “We have an opportunity here, but at the end of the day we don’t want to see a listing of the species.”

Many people said one issue with reworking current sage grouse plans is that there hasn’t been enough time to try them out.

“Bottom line is this plan has not been allowed enough time to work so that we can see if it will work to stop concerning trends,” said Dan Morse, conservation director with the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

Morse’s organization was not initially happy with the plans — it wanted more stringent conservation goals. But the group decided if the current plans were “implemented aggressively it could work,” Morse said.

“We should not turn our backs on this work,” Morse said. “We shouldn’t open Pandora’s Box and expose ourselves to the uncertainty of new plans and more litigation and the possibility of a listing.”

Dave Hunnicutt, with the Eastern Oregon Mining Association, said his organization was originally concerned with initial plans to withdraw 2 million acres of mining land in Oregon. The federal government canceled those plans in October.

“At this point,” Hunnicutt said, “We’re okay with the status quo. If nothing changes, we’re fine with that. We can live with what we have, and that’s good. We’re fine if (the U.S. Bureau of Land Management) wants to reopen discussions, but not if the end result is a listing or if you get a counter reaction from the state saying, ‘Well, we’re reducing standards on federal land. We’re going to tighten them up on state land.’”

There are federal and state plans to manage and protect sage grouse and sagebrush habitat. Many people at the meeting said they liked how the plans currently line up and work together. You need both plans, they said, because sage grouse don’t see land boundaries.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s natural resources director, Jason Minor, said the state is committed to moving forward with its conservation plans.

“The Oregon plan and approach is a solid plan. It’s one that is durable because of stakeholder buy-in,” Minor said.

The hope, said ODFW director Curt Melcher, is to not get stuck.

“We don’t want to get into a perpetual planning mode. We really think that we need to give the plans a chance to work,” Melcher said.

Sage grouse are quirky looking, iconic birds across 11 western states, especially known for their flamboyant mating dances in the spring.

It’s difficult to say exactly how many birds live across its wide habitat, including parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Federal estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 birds.

Threats to the bird are as wide-ranging as their habitat. It’s been said that sagebrush country is facing a “death of 1,000 cuts.” In the Northwest, the most prevalent threats include wildfires, invasive grasses, like cheatgrass, and encroaching juniper trees. Less known are threats from corvids and West Nile virus. Elsewhere, the birds have faced habitat fragmentation from energy development and mining.

Oregon’s most recent sage grouse counts, discussed at this week’s SageCon Partnership Summit, showed the state’s population decreased by about 8 percent in 2017, likely because of a normal downswing in the birds’ numbers, biologists said.

Officials estimate there are now around 20,466 sage grouse in Oregon. That number is still above the 2015 population estimates — the decline follows three consecutive years of population growth.

The state department of Fish and Wildlife also reported discovering 23 new leks, or mating grounds, and 12 new lek complexes this year during helicopter and ground surveys. Leks are an important part of sage grouse habitat.

Lee Foster, the ODFW sage grouse conservation coordinator, said this 8 percent decline was “fairly slight” compared to earlier years — and it was much smaller than what other states saw in 2017.

“I’m decently optimistic that this is just a bit of a blip on the radar, and hopefully we’ll be moving back up next year with the good snow conditions we had last winter,” Foster said.

A lot of conservation positives have happened over the past year, but there are still bumps in the road, said Brett Brownscombe, with the National Policy Consensus Center.

“Yeah, we’re having a big policy discussion now. We were having a big policy discussion then. People come. People go. Administrations change. We’ve been through bumps and high pressure times before,” Brownscombe said. “We’re still learning as we go, and we’re still here, despite bumps in the road — maybe to help with the bumps in the road.”

An alliance of conservation groups is asking Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to reopen the state’s investigation into the killing of a female wolf Oct. 27 in Union County.

Brian Scott, a 38-year-old elk hunter from Clackamas, shot the wolf after he claims the animal charged him, though critics argue that photos released by Oregon State Police directly contradict that story.

The groups — 18 in all — sent a letter Thursday to Brown requesting that OSP reopen the case, with independent oversight from the Office of the Attorney General and full cooperation from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.

“Enforcement of Oregon’s wildlife laws is crucial to deter criminals and to protect our state’s most vulnerable species,” the letter reads. “A failure to hold OSP accountable in this case could set a dangerous precedent and send a message that Oregon will look the other way when it comes to illegally killing wolves and other wildlife.”

A spokesman for the governor’s office did not return calls by press time.

In a recent interview with the Capital Press Scott said he screamed when he saw the wolf charging him, pulled up his rifle and fired a single shot. The 83-pound female was associated with the OR-30 pair of wolves occupying the Starkey and Ukiah wildlife management units, straddling Umatilla and Union counties.

Scott said he feared for his life, and felt he would have been mauled had he not shot.

“I take no pride in this at all,” Scott said. “The only thing I’m happy about is I made it home to my wife and two children.”

However, as the groups point out, photos show the bullet passed through the wolf’s shoulders, an indication that maybe the animal was standing broadside to Scott rather than running directly at him. The evidence “casts serious doubt on both the hunter’s story and OSP’s interpretation of the evidence,” the letter states.

The Union County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Scott, chalking up the incident to self-defense. It is illegal to kill wolves in Oregon except in defense of human life or to protect livestock under a specific set of circumstances.

“Self-defense claims are difficult to substantiate in cases like this,” the letter goes on. “We are not questioning that the hunter may have felt fearful. We are, however, questioning his story that he shot the wolf while it was running toward him. We are questioning OSP’s official report of the incident, which corroborated the hunter’s story even though the evidence suggested otherwise. And we are questioning the Union County District Attorney’s decision not to prosecute.”

Scott told the Capital Press he cannot explain the bullet’s trajectory, and does not know if the animal veered sideways as he shot. He said the moment makes him almost nauseous, and it will be something he has to live with the rest of his life.

Steve Pedery, conservation director for Oregon Wild, said the physical evidence raises a red flag, and he does not want to see self-defense become a “get out of jail free card” for potential poachers.

“It’s irresponsible of ODFW and OSP to let this stand, if the physical evidence contradicts it,” Pedery said.

In addition to Oregon Wild, groups that signed on to the letter include the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Endangered Species Coalition, among others.

A horse remains quarantined at Oregon State University after it was diagnosed with a particularly damaging neurotropic form of a common virus.

The horse became severely ill Nov. 4 at its owner’s property in Coos Bay, Ore., and was taken to OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine for treatment. The virus is contagious, and the college has suspended elective procedures on other horses and on alpacas and llamas for two weeks to reduce the risk of them becoming ill as well. The virus is not dangerous to humans, but people can spread it to animals through hand or clothing contact with sick horses.

Erica McKenzie, professor of large animal internal medicine at OSU, said the horse has a good prognosis but remains in isolation at the Lois Bates Acheson Veterinary Teaching Hospital for now.

The illness is caused by a mutated form of Equine Herpes Virus-1, a common ailment somewhat like a cold is to humans. Most horses will contract EHV-1 and develop minor respiratory problems at some point, but in some animals the virus takes a turn and attacks the nervous system.

The illness usually shows up first as weakness in the hind quarters, with animals stumbling or developing an unusual gait. Other signs include weak tail tone, nasal discharge, fever and difficulty urinating. Geldings and stallions may be unable to retract their penis. Pregnant mares may abort. In rare cases, EHV-1 can cause blindness and central nervous system damage in alpacas and llamas.

Animals showing signs of the illness should immediately be isolated and owners should contact their vets, according to OSU.

McKenzie said a vaccine for EHV-1 can ease symptoms of the common form of the virus, but it does not prevent animals from developing the more serious neurotropic form of the virus.

Online

More information regarding EHV-1 and biosecurity recommendations from the American Association of Equine Practitioners http://bit.ly/2jeDtmh

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Inspectors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington state have found at least seven leaks in the site’s oldest double-walled radioactive waste storage tank.

Tank AY-102 was known since 2012 to have a slow leak from its inner shell into the space between its inner and outer walls.

The Tri-City Herald reports that the tank, which was built in the 1960s and once held 744,000 gallons of waste, had been emptied of all but 19,000 gallons by February.

Then an inspection was done with video cameras.

Glyn Trenchard, a tank manager for the U.S. Department of Energy, told the Hanford Advisory Board on Wednesday that a total of seven leaks were found.

The Energy Department said no waste is believed to have breached the outer shell to contaminate the environment.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and the wastes are left over from that work. The most toxic wastes are stored in 177 giant underground tanks. There are 28 newer double-walled tanks and 149 single-walled tanks, some of which date back to the dawn of the Cold War. Many of the single-walled tanks have leaked over the years.

The tanks are made of carbon steel and contain more than 56 million gallons of the wastes that are the most difficult to treat for permanent disposal. Efforts to dispose of those wastes are expected to take decades and cost tens of billions of dollars.

When Tank AY-102 was emptied, leaks were revealed in two welds on the bottom of the inner wall, Trenchard said.

In addition, corrosion appeared to have left pits in the floor of the inner wall, he said.

To determine if any of the pits went all the way through the steel, a small amount of liquid was pumped into the space. The liquid drained through the pits in five places, bringing the total number of known leaks to at least seven, Trenchard said.

The inspection data will be used as the Department of Energy and state Department of Ecology negotiate on whether the tank can be repaired and returned to service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House has approved a bill aimed at expanding hydroelectric power, an action supporters said would boost a clean source of renewable energy but opponents denounced as a giveaway to large power companies.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, would define hydropower as a renewable energy source and streamline the way projects are licensed, with primary authority granted to a single federal agency. Lawmakers approved the bill Wednesday, 257-166.

Power from rivers and streams makes up nearly 70 percent of electricity generated in Washington state and accounts for more than 50 percent of power in Oregon and Idaho and 36 percent in Montana. But hydropower only accounts for 7 percent of electricity nationwide.

McMorris Rodgers, the fourth-highest ranking Republican, said that figure could be doubled without constructing a single dam. While it takes an average of 18 months to license a new natural gas plant, it can take up to 10 years or longer to license a new dam or relicense an existing dam, she and other Republicans said.

Only 3 percent of the nation’s 80,000 dams now produce electricity. Electrifying some of the larger sites - primarily locks and dams on the Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas Rivers that are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers - would generate electricity for millions of homes and create thousands of jobs, an Energy Department report said.

The bill would make the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the lead agency on hydropower licensing and require states, tribes and other federal agencies to defer to the commission.

The GOP bill would lower electricity costs and help the nation follow the Northwest in providing “reliable, clean and affordable energy for generations to come,” McMorris Rodgers said.

Opponents said the bill turns over public waterways to industry at the expense of fishermen, boaters and Native American tribes.

“This bill is an industry wish list and it’s facing major opposition by states, tribes, conservation and recreation groups,” said Amy Kober, a spokeswoman for American Rivers, an environmental group. The legislation weakens protections for clean water and wildlife and strips states and tribes of their authority to ensure crucial environmental safeguards, Kober said.

“We’ve made progress when it comes to balancing hydro production and river health, but this bill would take us backward, giving big energy companies all the power at the expense of local communities,” she said.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said a major cause for licensing delays was due to incomplete applications submitted by power companies rather than bureaucratic bungling, as Republicans charge.

“We cannot allow hydropower facilities to claim a monopoly over our public waterways without mitigating the negative impacts of these facilities ... and without complying with modern environmental laws,” Rush said.

But LeRoy Coleman, a spokesman for the National Hydropower Association, said the bill “would not have the unintended effect of rolling back environmental protections.” He noted it preserves the current environmental regulatory authorities of state and federal agencies.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Potato farmers who attend National Potato Council’s upcoming Potato Expo 2018 in Orlando, Fla., will also be helping to feed children in need.

Potato Expo is scheduled for Jan. 10-12 at Rosen Shingle Creek, and will be followed by the NPC’s annual meeting Jan. 12-13.

NPC will solicit donations from guests at the event, aiming to fund at least 2,000 Hi-Five Kids Packs, which are provided by Second Harvest of Central Florida to keep children who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches fed during weekends and breaks. The packs contain cereal, milk, juice, fruit cups and shelf-stable potato products.

Potato Expo co-chairman Jim Tiede, a farmer from American Falls, Idaho, said the Eastern Idaho dehydrated potato manufacturers Idahoan Foods and Basic American Foods have donated potato products for the packs.

“They get those kids eating those potato products at an early age, and they’ll be buyers for the rest of their lives,” Tiede said, adding that the primary reason for the donations is to support a good cause and “feed some hungry kids.”

The headline speaker during Potato Expo will be Jim Knight, described as an author, a “business culture catalyst” and a former Hard Rock International executive. His talk will be titled “Culture that Rocks: How to Amp up or Revolutionize a Company’s Culture.”

The event’s keynote speaker will be Merril Hoge, a former NFL star and ESPN analyst and a cancer survivor. Hoge played college football at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho. His talk will be called “Finding a Way: Succeeding in the Face of Adversity.”

In addition to the talks, Tiede said the event will include exhibits featuring “state-of-the-art chemicals and equipment.” The expo will also include the Third Annual Spud Nation Throwdown, a cooking competition hosted by supermarket expert Phil Lempert.

“The most important part is the networking you get to do with the other growers from other areas,” Tiede said.

For more information, or to register, visit potato-expo.com.