According to the State of Alaska:

* The Susitna Dam will generate 600 MW of electricity.
In fact, the State itself admits that the dam will generate only 280-to-300 MW. Reduced water flow in winter reduces electrical output. The “installed capacity” of 600 MW is the same as a car’s speedometer showing the capacity for 120 mph.

* The dam’s official cost estimate is $5.2 billion.
In fact, that widely announced figure is “under further study,” as the State itself admits. “Mitigation measures” are legally mandatory for all big dam projects and can be as much as 25% of total cost. Mitigation means rectifying, reducing, or compensating for impacts on habitat, wildlife, and business. The full cost of necessary transmission lines has not been included either. Plus, of course, the inevitable cost-overruns for a project of such magnitude. The Coalition’s estimate is 6 to 8 billion. Possibly more.

* Salmon runs, including Alaska’s 4th largest king salmon run, will not be affected.
In fact, according to existing State studies, the Susitna River is already at a natural tipping point for salmon. Those studies show that if the river’s oxygen content, chemical composition, temperature, or flow patterns are altered, the effect on fish could be disastrous. The dam will alter all those variables. Playing roulette with wild salmon runs is betting against millennia of House Rules.

* The dam will produce electricity for at least 50 years.
In fact, the glaciers that supply the river’s water are diminishing, with projections showing a 50% reduction in their size by the time the dam is 25 years old. Less water means less electricity. In addition, millions of tons of sharp grains of glacier-ground granite mountains called “silt” will scour turbine blades and settle in the reservoir.

* The Susitna Dam will never collapse in an earthquake on the nearby active Denali fault to annihilate the downstream villages of Talkeetna and Trapper Creek.
In fact, Fukushima could never happen, nor the cracks in China’s newly-completed Three Gorges dam, nor the flooding of New Orleans. In 2002 a 7.9 quake reconfigured the landscape within 45 miles of the dam’s site. To say that a catastrophic Susitna Dam failure can’t happen is impossible. To suggest that the lives of those in the floodplain are potentially expendable is immoral. There have been 11 major dam failures in the United States alone since 1972. Though computer-model algorithms exist to prove a “strong unlikelihood” of dam failure, projects like this should be considered only when there are no clear alternatives.

* Many new jobs will be created during the construction phase.
In fact, only 900 jobs will be created at the height of construction. Any development expenditure of billions of dollars will create jobs. After the dam is completed the number of jobs remaining will fall to about 20. Other energy developments like tidal, geothermal, and natural gas will continue to create jobs across decades as their technologies expand.

* Alaskans and visitors alike will be proud of a dam as big as Susitna.
At heart, few people would trade wild rivers and mountains and forests and life for a colossal dam unless there was no choice. Future generations will thank us all for having chosen sources of electricity that still allow the hunting and fishing center of Alaskan lands to thrive.