Aside from the power they provide, these dams have controlled flooding in the towns that line the Columbia (I grew up in one). In theory, I support returning the Columbia to its former glory, with its rapids and tangles and waterfalls with jumping, teeming salmon.

But what would that entail? A lot more than removal of the dams! The Indians who lived along the banks of the Columbia had trade and established communities, but they were also able to move upslope when the floods came. My grandma remembers before the dam, when the downtown would flood. The concrete post office and courthouse and brick shops do not make for a nimble town.

I would love for the dams to be successfully removed. I think we could compensate for the loss of electricity, somewhere, somehow. A larger issue, in my mind, is what to do about the river that we have created (placid, slow) and how to deal with the river we have submerged.

I think this broad brush article has left out the crux of most environmental groups, concerned Native American  tribes, and sportsman groups plans for dam breaching.  Most groups are advocating removing the four lower Snake River dams to create sustainable anadramous fish runs.  Here's an excerpt from the Save Our Wild Salmon publication Energy Myths:  http://www.wildsalmon.org/library_files/Energy_myths.pdf

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated
optimistically that the four dams combined provide
about 1,100 - 1,200 average megawatts (aMW) annually to the region. That figure, on its surface, amounts to only about five percent of the region's total energy use.  Moreover, hydroelectric power can be an unpredictable and unreliable

A closer look shows that when the Northwest needs
electricity the most, the lower Snake River dams
produce the least electricity. Typically, regional electricity demand is highest in winter, yet, in the winter months these dams combined generate only about 560 aMW - about two percent of the region's energy needs. That is because the dams are "run-of-the-river" dams, with almost no water storage capacity. Thus, in winter months when most of the water in the region lies frozen in mountain snowpack, the lower Snake River dams generate less electricity."

I'm concerned with replacing renewable energy with fossil fuels, however it would not be difficult to replace this lost renewable energy with regional efficiency measures, and a modest investment in new renewable energy infrastructure i.e. wind, solar, geothermal, etc...