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The defenders of the Hetch Hetchy Valley never considered that it could be restored. Once the dam was constructed they lost interest. However, in 1987 Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel made the rather remarkable suggestion that perhaps the dam could be removed and the scenic wonders of Hetch Hetchy might be restored. After vigorous objection by San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein and many others, the idea was dropped, except for a few like David Brower of the Sierra Club. Elsewhere, restoration became a reality. Engineers breached the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Maine in 1999. Federal legislation will rid the Elwha River in Olympic National Park of two large dams. Elsewhere, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is weighing the benefits and detriments of dams throughout the nation before renewing their federal licenses. It is possible that more dams will be removed than built in the new century. In regard to Hetch Hetchy, environmentalists formed a group specifically committed to the restoration of the valley. Restore Hetch Hetchy has made great progress since 1999 with the “win-win” solution in which San Francisco would lose no water and only about 40 percent of the generated power, while Yosemite National Park and the American people would receive a “second Yosemite Valley”.

This chapter examines how hydropower and renewable energy diminished the value of American rivers as a whole and instead allocated them to narrow, extractive uses. There is an ongoing debate about whether hydropower should be considered “renewable” energy and lumped in with other green sources, such as wind and solar. On the one hand, the “fuel” for hydro is water, which renews itself as precipitation. On the other hand, dams have a finite life, reservoirs fill with silt, and hydro dams can have devastating effects on riverine environments. Nonfederal hydropower in the United States is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has enormous power over the fate of rivers. This chapter considers the politics and legal history of the conflict between fish—specifically salmon and steelhead smolts—and four hydro dams on the lower Snake River in the Columbia River Basin.

The United States is more wedded to vehicles than is any other nation, and “freedom” to many Americans seemingly means driving their individual vehicles anywhere they choose. Opinion polls commonly show high proportions of U.S. citizens more concerned about gas prices, potholed highways, or restrictions on vehicle access to backcountry washes and dirt roads than about government scandals, stolen elections, or environmental damage. Unfortunately, vehicles and roads exact a huge toll on lives and health and threaten our future well-being. Driving wheeled vehicles, and constructing roads to support them, comes close to topping the list of humankind’s most environmentally damaging activities. On most soils, even foot traffic creates tracks, trails, and roads. After ancient people invented wheeled vehicles to carry their burdens and themselves, they found that running water quickly rutted and potholed the cart tracks, and gully erosion chopped them up on slopes. Rainstorms eroded the tracks, flooding the dislodged sediment into streams and creeks and burying downslope croplands. Rutted tracks prevented Roman chariots from driving as fast as they were designed to go, so the talented Roman engineers quite naturally invented paved roads—some with better staying power than asphalt highways. But Roman paving did not solve the erosion problems that roads created, and in some ways made it worse. Today, some parts of the United States contain more motorized vehicles than people. The varied vehicle uses, including military training, have vastly proliferated roads and roadlike corridors—especially numerous utility routes—across every type of American landscape. Erosional forces and their effects have not changed since Roman times, but modern engineers still fail to choose transportation routes or build roads to minimize environmental damages. The roads spread severe erosional effects everywhere, along with pervasive pollution. On top of it all, television images encourage Americans to take recreational cars, trucks, motorcycles, and all-terrain vehicles anywhere we wish. The naked ruts they create are an insidious form of road building.