March 14, 1973

As part of the interpartmental course, The River, Allan R. Talbot, an evironmentalist from the City College of New York School of Architectural and Environmental Design, lectured on “Who Are the Environmentalists and Why Are They Saying Such Awful Things About Us?” Professor Talbot’s Power along th Hudson: The Storm King Case and the Birth of Environmentalism (1972) detailed the ongoing struggle of the nascent environmental group Scenic Hudson in opposition to the hydroelectric power plant and high voltage transmission liine proposed in the late 1960s by Consolidated Edison for Storm King mountain in the Hudson Highlands.

Plagued by questions of the admisibility of environmental rather than economic evidence—and even the definition of what evironmental evidence should consist of—Scenic Hudson’s suit against the power company was denied in 1971. Persisting, the group won the landmark case in 1980, and Consolidated Edison, giving up its Storm King license, created a park at the proposed site.