Public power, private dams : the Hells Canyon High Dam controversy / Karl Boyd Brooks ; foreword by William Cronon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brooks, Karl Boyd.

Series:

Weyerhaeuser environmental book.

Weyerhaeuser environmental books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Idaho Power Company--History--20th century.

Idaho Power Company.

Dams--Snake River (Wyo.-Wash.)--Public opinion--History--20th century.

Dams.

Dams--Hells Canyon (Idaho and Or.)--Public opinion--History--20th century.

Hydroelectric power plants--Political aspects--Hells Canyon (Idaho and Or.)--History--20th century.

Hydroelectric power plants.

Environmental policy--United States--History--20th century.

Environmental policy.

Private companies--United States--Privileges and immunities--History--20th century.

Private companies.

Nature conservation--United States--History--20th century.

Nature conservation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvii, 290 pages, [16] pages) : illustrations, map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the years following World War II, the world’s biggest dam was almost built in Hells Canyon on the Snake River in Idaho. Karl Boyd Brooks tells the story of the dam controversy, which became a referendum not only on public-power expansion but also on the environmental implications of the New Deal’s natural resources and economic policy.Private-power critics of the Hells Canyon High Dam posed difficult questions about the implications of damming rivers to create power and to grow crops. Activists, attorneys, and scientists pioneered legal tactics and political rhetoric that would help to define the environmental movement in the 1960s. The debate, however, was less about endangered salmon or threatened wild country and more about who would control land and water and whether state enterprise or private capital would oversee the supply of electricity.By thwarting the dam’s construction, Snake Basin irrigators retained control over water as well as economic and political power in Idaho, putting the state on a postwar path that diverged markedly from that of bordering states. In the end, the opponents of the dam were responsible for preserving high deserts and mountain rivers from radical change.With Public Power, Private Dams, Karl Brooks makes an important contribution not only to the history of the Pacific Northwest and the region’s anadromous fisheries but also to the environmental history of the United States in the period after World War II.

Contents:

Introduction : Hells Canyon High Dam and the postwar Northwest

At hell's gates

Nationalizing nature : the New Deal legacy of Snake Basin hydropower

Taming rivers and presidents : the Hells Canyon controversy goes national

Planning for permanent control : the New Deal legacy of Northwest fishery policy

Sacrificing Hells Canyon's fish : death by committee

Unplugging the New Deal : Hells Canyon High Dam and the postwar public-power debate

Claiming the public interest : Idaho Power moves on Hells Canyon

Privatizing Hells Canyon : Dwight Eisenhower's partnership with Idaho Power

From energy to environment : the aftermath of the Hells Canyon controversy.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-274) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780295989761

0295989769

OCLC:

704517503