Description
Robert D. Lifset offers an original case history of this monumental event in environmental history, when a small group of concerned local residents initiated a landmark case of ecology as opposed to energy production. He follows the progress of this struggle, as Con Ed won approvals and permits early on, but later lost ground to environmentalists who were ready to raise questions about the potential damage to the habitat of Hudson River striped bass.
Lifset uses the struggle over Storm King to examine how environmentalism changed all the way through the 1960s and 1970s. He also views the financial challenges and increasingly more frequent blackouts faced by Con Ed, together with the pressure to produce ever-larger quantities of energy.
As Lifset demonstrates, the environmental cause used to be greatly empowered by the truth that through this struggle, for the first time, environmentalists were ready to gain access to the federal courts. The environmental cause used to be also greatly advanced by adopting scientific evidence of ecological change, combined with mounting public awareness of the environmental consequences of energy production and consumption. These became major factors supporting the case against Con Ed, spawning a range of new local, regional, and national environmental organizations and bequeathing to the Hudson River Valley a vigilant and intense environmental awareness. A new balance of power emerged, and energy companies would now be held to higher standards that safe the environment.