In the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, the city of San Francisco desperately needed reliable supplies of water and electricity. Its mayor, James Phelan, pressed for the damming of the Tuolumne River in the newly created Yosemite National Park, setting off a firestorm of protest. For the first time in American history, a significant national opposition arose to defend and preserve nature, led by John Muir and the Sierra Club, who sought to protect what they believed was the right of all Americans to experience natural beauty, particularly the magnificent mountains of the Yosemite region. Yet the defenders of the valley, while opposing the creation of a dam and reservoir, did not intend for it to be maintained as wilderness. Instead they advocated a different kind of development--the building of roads, hotels, and an infrastructure to support recreational tourism. Using articles, pamphlets, and broadsides, they successfully whipped up public opinion against the dam. Letters from individuals began to pour into Congress by the thousands, and major newspapers published editorials condemning the dam. The fight went to the floor of Congress, where politicians debated the value of scenery and the costs of western development. Ultimately, passage of the passage of the Raker Act in 1913 by Congress granted San Francisco the right to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley. A decade later the O'Shaughnessy Dam, the second largest civil engineering project of its day after the Panama Canal, was completed. Yet conflict continued over the ownership of the watershed and the profits derived from hydroelectrocity. To this day the reservoir provides San Francisco with a pure and reliable source of drinking water and an important source of power. Although the Sierra Club lost this battle, the controversy stirred the public into action on behalf of national parks. Future debates over dams and restoration clearly demonstrated the burgeoning strength of grassroots environmentalism. In a narrative peopled by politicians and business leaders, engineers and laborers, preservationists and ordinary citizens, Robert W. Righter tells the epic story of the first major environmental battle of the twentieth century, which reverberates to this day.

The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

History

Righter, Robert W.

Americas

Oxford University Press

In the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, the city of San Francisco desperately needed reliable supplies of water and electricity. Its mayor, James Phelan, pressed for the damming of the Tuolumne River in the newly created Yosemite National Park, setting off a firestorm of protest. For the first time in American history, a significant national opposition arose to defend and preserve nature, led by John Muir and the Sierra Club, who sought to protect what they believed was the right of all Americans to experience natural beauty, particularly the magnificent mountains of the Yosemite region. Yet the defenders of the valley, while opposing the creation of a dam and reservoir, did not intend for it to be maintained as wilderness. Instead they advocated a different kind of development--the building of roads, hotels, and an infrastructure to support recreational tourism. Using articles, pamphlets, and broadsides, they successfully whipped up public opinion against the dam. Letters from individuals began to pour into Congress by the thousands, and major newspapers published editorials condemning the dam. The fight went to the floor of Congress, where politicians debated the value of scenery and the costs of western development. Ultimately, passage of the passage of the Raker Act in 1913 by Congress granted San Francisco the right to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley. A decade later the O'Shaughnessy Dam, the second largest civil engineering project of its day after the Panama Canal, was completed. Yet conflict continued over the ownership of the watershed and the profits derived from hydroelectrocity. To this day the reservoir provides San Francisco with a pure and reliable source of drinking water and an important source of power. Although the Sierra Club lost this battle, the controversy stirred the public into action on behalf of national parks. Future debates over dams and restoration clearly demonstrated the burgeoning strength of grassroots environmentalism. In a narrative peopled by politicians and business leaders, engineers and laborers, preservationists and ordinary citizens, Robert W. Righter tells the epic story of the first major environmental battle of the twentieth century, which reverberates to this day.

This compelling saga is the history of the effort to capture the power of the wind for electricity. Environmental historian Robert W. Righter has included in his narrative the first European windmills, the nineteenth-century electric experiments that empowered rural America, and finally, the immense, acres-wide wind farms that feed the power grid in late-twentieth-century California and elsewhere. Righter tells lively tales not only of eccentric inventors and technical innovations but also of the politics of the power industry, past and present. From his thorough research in a variety of archival sources, he describes how individuals and small businesses have contributed the most to wind-energy development, concluding that for rural America at least, an individual, decentralized power system is a reasonable alternative. Wind Energy in America, however, does not end in the past. Well over one-third of the narrative focuses on the contemporary development of wind energy and the international race for dominance in the wind-turbine business. Righter is courageous enough to take a stand regarding federal government research efforts (SERI, NRAL) and the crucial role of public and private power companies. He also explores the arguments of people and organizations opposed to the spread of wind generators - paradoxically, often the same environmental groups that hailed wind energy as a savior in the late 1970s.

Wind Energy in America: A History

Business & Money

Economics

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

This compelling saga recounts the human effort to capture the power of the wind for electricity--from the first European windmills, to nineteenth century experiments in rural electrification, to the immense wind farms in California and the plains states that feed power grid today. Environmental historian Robert W. Righter describes eccentric inventors and techinical innovations, analyzes the politics of the power industry, past and present, and demonstrates that individuals and small businesses have made the greatest contributions to wind-energy development. Wind Energy in America also focuses on contemporary developments, including U.S. government research and regulation and the international race for dominance in the wind-turbine business. Righter explores the arguments of people and organizations opposed to the spread of wind generators--often the same environmental groups, paradoxically, that hailed wind energy as a savior in the late 1970s. This abundantly illustrated history, free of ideology and cant, will be of lasting interest to environmentalists, scholars, and all readers alert to the need for alternatives to coal and oil.

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

University of Oklahoma Press

Not long ago, energy experts dismissed wind power as unreliable and capricious. Not anymore. The industry has arrived, and the spinning blades of this new kid on the electric power block offer hope for a partial solution to our energy problems by converting nature’s energy into electricity without exposing our planet and its inhabitants to the dangers of heat, pollution, toxicity, or depletion of irreplaceable natural resources. Windfall tells the story of this extraordinary transformation and examines the arguments both for and against wind generation.
In Windfall, Robert W. Righter explains how wind is transformed into energy and examines the land-use decisions that affect the establishment of new wind farms. The book also discusses the role of tax credits and other government subsidies in the creation of transmission systems between the turbines and end users in cities.
Currently the world’s fastest-growing source of energy, wind generation has also given rise to backlash. A critical advocate of wind energy whose career as a historian has focused on environmental controversies, Righter addresses the cultural dimensions of resistance to wind energy and makes considered predictions about the directions wind energy may take. His sympathetic treatment of opposing arguments regarding landscape change, unwanted noise, bird deaths, and human medical implications are thought-provoking, as is his recommendation that we place the lion’s share of turbines on the Great Plains.
Most books on wind energy are technical manuals. Righter’s book does not shy away from scientific explanations, but he does not write for engineers. His broad, historically informed vision will appeal to policy makers at the federal, state, and local levels and to anyone interested in a technology increasingly significant to supplying America’s energy needs.

Windfall: Wind Energy in America Today

Captures the definitive, hard-won battle for the preservation of Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park.

Crucible for Conservation: The Creation of Grand Teton National Park

Univ Pr of Colorado

Daily Power Thoughts

Harvest House Pub.

With its unmatchable mountains and broad vistas, it is difficult today to imagine that the land of the Tetons could be anything but a national park. But for over fifty years, the question of national park status remained unsettled as a myriad of public and private interests fought for control over Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Many divergent views of conservation and land use had their hearing in Jackson Hole during the long struggle to establish the Park. Rugged individualists, cattlemen, Easterners, "New Dealers," "state's righters," state of Wyoming officials, Forest Service personnel, and Park Service leaders all wanted hegemony over Jackson Hole and the Tetons. The way in which they cajoled, fought, sued each other and ultimately resolved the issue is a classic case in the difficulties of park-making. Grand Teton National Park is thus no product of chance, but rather the design of men and women working in a noble cause. What they achieved was, Righter suggests, "perhaps the most notable conservation victory of the twentieth century."

Crucible for Conservation

Travel

Food, Lodging & Transportation

Grand Teton Association

"In this beautifully presented book, one of our country's eminent environmental historians tells the story of a great American achievement: the preservation of the Teton Mountains and their sagebrush pains and rivers. Robert Righter was exactly the right person for this assignment, for he is a careful, meticulous scholar who lives near this place and understands its natural values as well as the motivations of those who sought to save it for posterity. His work stands tall and elegant like the Tetons in national park history." - Donald Worster In Crucible for Conservation Robert Righter elegantly chronicled the early history of Grant Teton National Park to 1950. Now, he has brought the story up to date with this new, deeply-researched book that examines the difficult and often vexing challenges in the decades since, including private land inholdings, historic preservation, fire and wildlife management, and the airport. Righer, one of our finest national park historians, richly lluminates the recent history of one of our superlative national parks. He has given us a gem and a classic. - Mark Harvey Bob Righter's Peaks, Politics &amp; Passion is a book only he could write. The park itself, won for the public after one of the most vicious ideological battles over the park idea in American history, has since 1950 become an iconic international symbol of America. but it is also Bob Righter's backyard. Give me an author any day who understands big history, knows policy detail, has a fair mind, and looks out the window at his subject over coffee every morning. That's rare in combination, and a book this informed and intimate is what comes from it. - Dan Flores

Peaks, Politics & Passion

United States

Grand Teton National Park draws more than three million visitors annually in search of wildlife, outdoor adventure, solitude, and inspiration. This collection of writings showcases the park's natural and human histories through stories of drama and beauty, tragedy and triumph. &nbsp; Editor Robert Righter has selected thirty-five contributors whose work takes readers from the Tetons' geological origins to the time of Euro-American encroachment and the park's politically tumultuous creation. Selections range from Laine Thom's Shoshone legend of the Snake River and Owen Wister's essay "Great God! I've Just Killed a Bear," to Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson's humorous yet fearful account of crossing the Snake River, and William Owen's first attempt to climb the Grand Teton. Conservationists, naturalists, and environmentalists are also represented: Terry Tempest Williams chronicles her multiyear encounter with her "Range of Memory," and Olaus and Mardy Murie recount the difficulties of "park-making" in an often-hostile human environment. Anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the park's wild beauty and controversial past will want to read these stories by people who lived it.

The Grand Teton Reader (National Park Readers)

University of Utah Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Righter, Robert W.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Righter, Robert W.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Righter, Robert W.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

Wind Energy in America: A History

Wind Energy in America: A History

Windfall: Wind Energy in America Today

Crucible for Conservation: The Creation of Grand Teton National Park

Daily Power Thoughts

Crucible for Conservation

Peaks, Politics & Passion

The Grand Teton Reader (National Park Readers)