THE HILL: “Ex-leader of Bureau of Reclamation calls for Trump administration to eliminate it”

Hi Amazing Friends of Rivers,

THE HILL breaks the story today: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4990617-dan-beard-advocates-abolishing-bureau-reclamation/

The best quote in the story from former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner, Daniel Beard: “I can’t think of a better agenda item for the new Department of Government Efficiency than beginning the process to abolish the Bureau of Reclamation.”

We are grateful to Commissioner Beard for speaking out, and also for representing us on our board of directors.

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In addition, we offer the following statement about DOGE: —

“We applaud Commissioner Beard’s leadership supporting efficiency in the federal government, and our organization, Save The World’s Rivers, encourages Mr. Musk, Mr. Ramaswamy, and Trump administration to root out inefficiency and waste in the government’s agencies that manage water including the Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Bureau of Reclamation, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and others.

As just two examples, first, the EPA is right now proposing to make a billion dollars available each to two massive proposed boondoggle dam projects in California and Colorado — the Sites Reservoir Project and the Northern Integrated Supply Project, respectively. Storing water above ground in reservoirs is not only a colossal waste of money, it’s antiquated technology that causes evaporation, water pollution, and increases national security risks. Conversely, mimicking Nature and storing water below ground in aquifers is faster, easier, cheaper, smarter, less risky, and more efficient.

Second, right now the U.S. taxpayer-funded World Bank is proposing to help fund a colossal $80 billion hydroelectricity project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hydropower is not only exorbitantly expensive, it’s a 100-year old technology that destroys the water cycle wherever it’s deployed. As Mr. Musk knows well, the energy source of the future is the Sun — solar energy is faster, easier, cheaper, more efficient, and far less environmentally damaging than hydropower. It makes no more sense to build a hydropower dam and reservoir on Earth than it does on Mars. Capturing and storing the energy of the Sun will sustainably propel humanity forward, and the country that dominates solar energy will dominate the future.

In this rapidly changing world, we are looking to find positive and creative ways to help reform the federal government to be more efficient and environmentally sustainable. Working with Nature, instead of against it, is the most efficient and sustainable path forward.”  — Gary Wockner, PhD, Director of Save The World’s Rivers