Why rural Nevada electric co-ops are watching proposals to remove Snake River dams

Hundreds of miles away from rural Northern Nevada, water gushes through dams in the lower Snake River. These dams, barriers in the Columbia River Basin, have long been controversial for harming wild salmon populations and violating Native American treaty obligations. In recent months, tribes and conservation groups have renewed calls to remove the dams, but the proposals face a complicated political calculus, skepticism across the political spectrum and opposition from distant energy utilities including those in northeastern Nevada.