Pacific Power (Corp) Lawsuit
Attention Klamath area residents who are Pacific Corp customers! We invite you to join the Pacific Corp Class Action Lawsuit, a crucial step towards ensuring our community receives the justice and compensation it deserves. By participating, you’ll be standing with your neighbors to hold Pacific Corp accountable for their actions. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a positive impact for yourself and your community. Sign up today and be a part of the change we need!
A lawsuit and injunction to stop Pacific Corp from raising rates for 10 years will be filed soon. We need class action members. You don’t need to pay anything—just provide your contact information and approval. Only your name will be included in the complaint. You need to be a Pacific Power (Corp) customer in the Klamath Basin or Southwest Oregon or Northwest California area.
If you have lakeside property, please tell us how much your property value has decreased.
The complaint against Pacific Corp begins as follows:
Plaintiff files this complaint against the Defendants, who failed to perform their obligations under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) contracts related to the Klamath River Dam system. In 2005 defendants told federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) it would cost $250 million to install the FERC required fish ladders. However the Government Accounting Office says the average cost of fish ladder install is $6.3 million. Defendants were making $37 million a year in profit from the Klamath river dams for 50 years. They could have easily done this in 2005 and all fish runs would have returned by 2012. This failure resulted in the illogical and preposterous conclusion that the four dams comprising the system must be removed, causing irreparable damage to the environment. They did this without seriously considering far less drastic alternatives to the destruction of the dams.
We are getting a quote to install two new dams with fish ladders to restore Copco lake and Iron Gate flood control. The amount will be added to the lawsuit.
The most obvious alternatives were dredging behind the dams and constructing or cleaning fish ladders to restore the fish runs. Initially, the defendant dramatically overestimated the cost of installing fish ladders, which was used as an excuse for non-performance of contract duties. In 2005, the Defendants reported that the installation of operable fish ladders would cost $250 million on the four Klamath River dams. However, our review of market conditions and costs at the time reveals an actual cost closer to $25.46 million—about one-tenth of the defendant’s estimate.
The Government Accountability Office says the average fish ladder costs $6.3 million per dam. The Plaintiff contends that the scale of this error, in the context of many other profitable installations during the period, goes well beyond gross negligence. Additionally, their contracts required them to install permanent deer fences on both sides of the Klamath River, along with other mitigation procedures. This contractual obligation was not fulfilled, resulting in the wanton destruction of at least one herd of elk.
Whether this was due to fraud or simple incompetence, the result was the same.