Three Republican senators from the Northwest — Slade Gorton (Wash.), Larry Craig (Idaho), and Gordon Smith (Ore.) — yesterday embraced a report released this week by enviros that indicates salmon are being harmed by global warming. In a Senate hearing, the lawmakers, who have not been known for their concern about global warming, made primarily tongue-in-cheek remarks intended to mock Clinton administration efforts to protect salmon. Gorton suggested that instead of breaching dams on the lower Snake River to help salmon, Congress could legislate a decrease in the temperature of the Pacific Ocean. Smith added that hydropower dams should be appreciated as a means for helping combat global warming, since they don’t produce greenhouse gases.
