The God Squad: Too Much Power?

In the 1970s, the Tellico Dam, a concrete dam on the Little Tennessee River, was 95 percent complete. But the builder, the Tennessee Valley Authority had a problem – if the dam were finished, it would likely cause a tiny fish called the snail darter to go extinct. Under the newly enshrined Endangered Species Act, this made the completion of the project illegal.

Environmental groups, fearing for the survival of the snail darter, took the Tennessee Valley Authority to court. The case ultimately made it to the Supreme Court, which sided with the environmentalists. The language of the ESA, the court said, “admits of no exception.” The dam could not be completed.

Among those unhappy with the decision were several members of Congress. The remedy they devised was an exemption process that would rarely be invoked over the years, but has gained new traction under President Donald Trump. Trump directed federal agencies to make liberal use of that process to further his goals of resource extraction on federal lands, including during a recent decision that exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, potentially dooming Rice’s whale to extinction.

In the case of the Tellico Dam, one prominent voice was Republican Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee, who wanted to see it completed for his state. Baker, along with several likeminded senators, created a number of amendments to the ESA, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law. The Endangered Species Committee was born.

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