Tennessee Valley
TVA v. Hill Questions
Do you agree with the Court's decision, based upon the language of the Endangered Species Act quoted above? That is, did the Endangered Species Act preclude construction of the dam? Should the ESA have precluded construction of the dam? Was Congress right to amend the ESA to permit the dam to be built?
The Supreme Court acted correctly in its decidedly rigid invocation of Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to its decision, Section 7 asserts that "all Federal agencies must take such action as is necessary to ensure that actions authorized, funded, or carried out by them do not result in the destruction or modification of this critical habitat area." (U.S. Supreme Court, p. 1)
Given that $100 million of federal funds had already been funneled into the Tellico Dam project, it is clear that Congress was explicitly responsible for intervening with any use of this funding that might lead to the destruction of an endangered habitat. The discovery of the snail darter just two years after the establishment of the 1973 legislation would bring about the first judicial invocation of the ESA. In doing so, it would also justify the development of such legislation, with the effort to stop dam construction not just corresponding with the intent of the Act but also with the will of the voting public. To the point, Church (2007) indicates that the public battle over the Tellico Dam was "less about Herculean efforts of naturalists to save an endangered fish as it is about the failed efforts of a coalition of sport fishermen, farmers and other landholders, river rafters, and national environmental activists...
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