Klamath River dams secret negotiations

Fact sheet from PacifiCorp on the Settlement Process http://www.pacificorp.com/File/File39739.pdf
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Here is a FERC letter on its policy regarding settlements:
http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=11139272
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12/18/06: Letter to KBC from FERC:
"These "FERC negotiations" you mention are not meetings held or attended by the Commission or Commission staff. All of our meetings are open to the public and, in most cases transcripts or meeting summaries are made available to the public.
     The meetings you are referring to involve resource agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations and (at times) PacifiCorp. The purpose of these meetings, as we understand it, is to develop a settlement agreement that would address resource issues attendant to the relicensing of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, and perhaps other Basin issues as well. If settlement is reached, the settlement would likely be filed with the Commission. At that time, the Commission would issue public notice of the settlement, invite public comments on it, and subsequently act on those issues under its jurisdiction. The Commission's decision and the record underlying it would be available to the public.
     To learn why the settlement meetings are closed to the public, and why certain entities are involved while others aren't, you would need to contact someone involved in that process."
John Mudre, FERC
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12/18/06: Letter to KBC from Craig Tucker PhD, Karuk spokesman, formerly Friends of the River
KBC: Can you tell me, who is at the FERC negotiation table?
Tucker Response: "The four Tribes (Hoopa, Yurok, Karuk, Klamath Tribes), Klamath County, Siskiyou Co., Humboldt Co., US Department of Interior (incl. BOR, BLM, USFS), US Dept of Commerce (NOAA), KWUA, Off-project water users, a host of enviros (although they form a caucus that has but two seats at the table), state of CA and OR, PCFFA...I think that's everyone"
KBC: Why are the meetings secret to the public? Will the public be consulted before any deals are made?
Tucker Response: "I understand the question which is being asking by both farm and fish advocats. All I can say is that evey 'deal point' is linked to sucessfully reaching agreement on the next deal point and so on.  So the feeling is that if any one detail is vetted publicly without being considered in context with the entire package, it won't look good to anyone.
    Therefore we have agreed to complete an entire 'agreement in princple' before releasing any details. We get closer to that with each meeting.
    All I can ask is that everyone continue to be patient...we have to produce something for public consumption before the governor's conference...I expect that in Jan/feb we will all be education our collective constituents on what whatever agreement we arrive at looks like...
    Whatever we come up with will have to pass the public approval test but in the form of getting sign off from who the principals represent as well as conform to NEPA and CEQA"
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According to an anonomous reader 12/16/06: There was a letter sent by the tribes, KWUA, Klamath Off-Project Water Users, PCFFA, American Rivers, Cal Trout, Friends of the River, KFA, National Center for Conservation Science and Policy, N. CA Council Federation of Fly Fishers, North Coast Environmental Center, Oregon Wild, Salmon River Restoration Council, Trout Unltd. and Water Watch of Oregon. That letter was the one referred to in the attached article. It is some sort of sub group that has formed and has excluded (some stakeholders.) This is another group that has formed."