Upcoming Public Lecture. Tuesday, April 5, at noon in the CUB Auditorium.
In this comparative exploration of historical politics of federal dam projects, Casey Cater of Atlanta, GA offers WSU’s Northwest audience a look at the divergent results of two New Deal dam projects on the Snake and Savannah Rivers after World War II. At Hells Canyon, private interests “unplugged” the New Deal and ushered in an energy regime of private dams and public power. At Clarks Hill, the public-private battle had the opposite result: public dams and private power, as private utilities in the US South plugged federal hydropower machinery into an increasing coal-based network. Cater draws this presentation from his current research project: Regenerating Dixie: Electric Energy and the Making of the Modern South. Sponsored by CAS Berry Family Faculty Excellence Fellows, Columbia Chair in the History of the American West, WSU Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach and the Pettyjohn Lectureship.
