The snail darter and the dam : how pork-barrel politics endangered a little fish and killed a river / Zygmunt J.B. Plater.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Plater, Zygmunt J. B., 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tennessee Valley Authority.

United States. Endangered Species Act of 1973.

United States.

United States. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

Environmental policy--United States.

Environmental policy.

Percina tanasi--Law and legislation.

Percina tanasi.

Endangered species--Government policy--United States.

Endangered species.

Endangered species--Law and legislation--United States.

Rare fishes--Government policy--United States.

Rare fishes.

Tellico Dam (Tenn.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (388 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Even today, thirty years after the legal battles to save the endangered snail darter, the little fish that blocked completion of a TVA dam is still invoked as an icon of leftist extremism and governmental foolishness. In this eye-opening book, the lawyer who with his students fought and won the Supreme Court case-known officially as Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill-tells the hidden story behind one of the nation's most significant environmental law battles.The realities of the darter's case, Plater asserts, have been consistently mischaracterized in politics and the media. This book offers a detailed account of the six-year crusade against a pork-barrel project that made no economic sense and was flawed from the start. In reality TVA's project was designed for recreation and real estate development. And at the heart of the little group fighting the project in the courts and Congress were family farmers trying to save their homes and farms, most of which were to be resold in a corporate land development scheme. Plater's gripping tale of citizens navigating the tangled corridors of national power stimulates important questions about our nation's governance, and at last sets the snail darter's record straight.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

INTRODUCTION. God Is Speaking, by Committee

CHAPTER 1. Of Time, a River, and the Tennessee Valley Authority

CHAPTER 2. At the Old Fort

CHAPTER 3. Pushing the Snail Darter onto the Endangered Species List

CHAPTER 4. Trial and Tribulation in TVA's Home Court

CHAPTER 5. An Appeal for Justice as Bulldozers Roll

CHAPTER 6. The Snail Darter Goes to Washington

CHAPTER 7. Endangered, on the Banks of the Potomac

CHAPTER 8. The Snail Darter Gets Its Congressional Hearings

CHAPTER 9. The Highest Court?

CHAPTER 10. Another Trial and Vindication, in the God Tribunal

CHAPTER 11. 140 Days of a Slow- Ticking Clock, Ending in 42 Seconds

CHAPTER 12. A Phone Call from Air Force One

EPILOGUE. A Few Years Later, on the CBS Evening News

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-359) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300195262

0300195265

OCLC:

847527240