Robert D. Lifset. Power on the Hudson

In 1962, Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), New York City’s electricity provider, unveiled plans to build a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant at Storm King Mountain, fifty miles north of the city on the west bank of the Hudson River. Robert D. Lifset provides an intensively researched and well-written account of the controversy surrounding construction of the plant. According to Lifset, the eighteen-year battle between Con Ed and environmental activists was far more than a local not-in-my-backyard skirmish; it decisively shaped the course of environmental activism and regulation in the postwar era. The proposed Storm King plant was a product of the vagaries of electrical generation and consumption. Con Ed struggled to generate enough power to satisfy increasing demand in the postwar era. However, the utility’s coal-powered plants generated more energy than consumers required during periods of low demand, particularly late at night and early in the morning. The solution was to use this excess energy to pump water from the Hudson River to a reservoir on top of Storm King Mountain. Con Ed would release water from the reservoir during the day to turn turbines and generate electricity, supplementing the power available from fossil-fuel sources. As Con Ed’s chairman explained, the Storm King plant would function like a battery, releasing power only when it was needed.

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