Transcripts For LINKTV Earth Focus 20240712

Mining and ranching interests. Tv reporter the town of ely cod experience the most impacts from the gat basin naonal park. My resides lieve thathe parks popularity could spill over into ely and rejuvenate an otherwise dormant economy. Christensen when he heard that there was support for a national park, he saw a solution. Reid i was willing to compromise significantly. Laxalt didnt kill it. Im sure he uld have, buhe didnt. Because of him, i made it smalr than it should have been, and i also allowed grazing ont. Cows d sheep uld graze there. I got it passed, and so there was talk about the seetary of agriculture at that time. Was recommending to president reagan to veto that. Ronald reagan democrats and republicans must join together not to do whats easy, but to do what is right. Reid so i called william penn mott, the director of park service, and i said, mr. Mott, theres talk about vetoing my park. How do you feel about it . He said, i, as a young park ranger, was asked by one of the senators from nevada to go out and find a place in nevada for a park. And he said, i spent a lot of time, and i found the place at wheeler peak. No ones going to veto this park. He says, i have been in favor of this park for over 50 years. Mott congress recognizes that here, we do have Natural Resources of national significance. Now that its a national park, people wi begin to understand that, and as we begin to interpret the natural and cultural values, itll be clear that this truly is a national park. Tv narrator on october 17, 1986, president reagan signed legislation designating a carefully prescribed areas the great basin tional park. Senator harry reid, during his tenure in congress, was instrumental in the parks final push through congress. Reid this state is beautiful. Were now gointo have a national park. Its a place of intersecting Mountain Ranges. Its a place of beauty, and we want people to know of nevada as something other than a place to set off bombs and to store Nuclear Waste. Christensen i think we can see this first big victory as confirmation for reid himself that he can get things done in congress. Great Basin National Park is significant in an interesting other way. When the park was being inaugated, he wasupposedo fly out there to join the ceremony, but the weather was too bad, and so he drove up eastern nevada. Its a couple hundred miles. Reid and all the way, from alamo up, there were great fields of grain. What are they growing there . They were growing alfalfa, all these huge alfalfa fields. [slide projector clicking] cause we have so much sunshine, they get as many as 5 or 6 cuttings each year and bundle up for hay. Alfalfas one of the most waterintensive plants there is, so i thought to myself as i drove up there, how are they able to grow that . Its not from rainfall. Las vegas has 4 inches a year. Its being irrited. Its irrigated land. [slide projector clicks] [wat sloshing] chriensen water is ucial for fe in the americ west and not ju for ecosystems, but also for agrulture. The stern part of the United States and in the midwest, agriculture can survive on rainfall. In the american west, its depdent on irrigation. And late in the 19th century and early in the 20th century, settlers realized that to have agriculture at the scale that they envisioned, couldnt just be done with local, small irrigation projects, but required massive federal investments for dams and reservoirs and canals, and leveling fields and valleys to make agriculture possible, to make the desert bloom. This was called reclamation. Narrator parchescrubland was turned io green farm reid the idea with reclamation was to find a way to harness particularly rivers in the west to put people and support families out on the ground, to expand agriculture. People werent really looking at what was the impact on native americans, what was the impact on our rivers, our fish. People didnt think about that. [gavel pounds] barbara milski the senator om nevada has the floor. Reid first bureau of Reclamation Project ever to take place in the United States took place in nevadathe newlands project. [bell dings] the newlands project was funded for one reason nevada has a shortage of water. Christensen what the newlands project did was to dam the Truckee River and divert that water over to the carson river basin to expand agriculture around the Farming Community of fallon. It also dammed the carson river and set up a network of canals to supply water to farms in what came to be called the truckeecarson irrigation district. Ernie schank i am a native nevadan. I was born in fallon. I live on the same ranchin fact, i live in a house that my grandfather built in about 1930. I am the youngest who ever ran for the board of directors for the truckeecarson irrigation district. My main occupation, however, is a farmer. This is what i love. Our farm is now in the fifth generation. Our family came to the fallon area in 1929, and when i asked my grandfather why, he said he wanted to go to a place where reclamation was in its infancy. The mormon pioneers pioneered reclamation as we know it today. They came to what was considered a wasted area because nobody thought that you could grow crops, but when they got here, theyetermined that if they would dam the stams and build reservoirs, that soil could become very fertile. [water sloshing] baca however, what they did not take into consideration was the effect of that reallocation on the Truckee River itself and on pyramid lakend on some of the othelakes that were dependent on this water system. [water splashing] man this lake came under a great peril beginning of the last century because water was diverted from here for other uses, primarily truckeecarson irrigation district in fallon. It silted up the area, made spawning very bad. It was very difficult for the fish to find places to spawn, the beds were wiped out. Not only did the lake go down, but the timing of the water and how it came down and what it came down with, the cleanliness, all of that, was just a big problem. Tv announcer since it is shrinking, the lake is becoming lessure. Ithard to predict how long it may be before fish can no longer survive in it. Young ely i would imagine, by the turn of the century, the fisheries would be eliminated entirely. Tv narrator just 3 fish today, where there once were thousands. Man 2 then they murdered the fish, i would say. Ust a murder is what it is. Ely at one point, the lahontan cutthroat trout were extinct in this lake. We were very much afraid that the cuiui were going to become extinct as well. Tv narrator pyramid lake is the only place theyre found in all of the world. Ely were cuiui ticutta. Were cuiui eaters. We fish for them, we eat them, and we want to do that again. When i was a kid, about this time of year, your ears would be listening and youd hear somebody say, theyre running cause we knew the cuiui were running. And when the cuiui ran, youd come to the lakeshore and there were people all up and down the lakeshore, catching cuiui. So it was just this time of laughter and talk, and it was like a celebration. Well, my kids have never experienced that. Im the last generation to experience that. My grandkids havent experienced it. They dont knoat all. [applause] we needed to fix that. re out to protect our livelihood. Were out to protect r way of life. Those things that we hold near and dear to us, which are part of our identity, part of who we are, we want to protect that and keep that integrity in place, and we arwilling to do whatever it kes to dso. Midpart of the century, we decided to take it on ourselves. We were forced into a position of having to use the endangered species act. Baca many people probably dont realize that president nixon signed into law the clean water act and the endangered species act. Richard nin each of us all across this great la has a ste in maintaining and improving enronmental quality. We must act. It is literally now or never. The environmental agenda now before the congress includes laws to deal with water pollution, ocean dumping, careless land development, and many other environmental problems. These problems will not stand still for politics or for partisahip. [tclicks off] ely we went to court and we took it on, and we were litigating it for years and years; decades, in fact. If the cuiui go, thats a very intricate part of our way of life, and it goes, a big portion of ourulture and tradition goes with it. Man well, if you didnt have the water, thered be no farming. We have the water. Presently, we have the water, and everybody else is wanting our water. Man we make a lot better use and more of a multiple use of the water within this irrigation district than i think is possible in pyramid. They should be compensated. Tv anchor the indians here filed suit in federal court to stop the diversion of waters bound for pyramid lake. Ely the Supreme Court ruled on behalf of the fish. [gavel pounds thrice] because at that time, the lahotan cutthroat trout had been listed as threatened and the cuiui as endangered. Baca winning that case, for the pyramid lake paiute, was really a landmark moment. It created the ability to actually negotiate and to frame things in a different way so that they could come in and leverage a new deal. Chisholm it was a complete shock to the system. The urban areas all of a sudden realized something that they thought they had been counting on wasnt going to be available, and it meant working withhe tribe. Reid we have to resolve this issue. If not, it is going to be a long time before it can be worked out, if, in fact, it ever can be because each year that goes by, more demands are placed on the river systems. Woman a new water report indicates the truckee meadows will not have enough water to meet the demands here years from now without a negotiated settlement or a water pipeline. Reid reno was growing significantly, and the business community, they knew that something had to be done or they we going to not be able to buy any more water. Woman on tv an unforeseen jump inater consumption indicated that the day of reckoning about the water supply situation is rapidly approaching. Christensen so, at the same time that this is happening on the ground inevada, paul laxalt is in washington, d. C. , trying to push through a compact between california and nevada that would have divided the waters of the Truckee River. He wanted to settle the water wars, but in the process, he also wanted to extinguish any possibility that the pyramid lake paiute tribe could claim more water on the river. When you have a compact between two states, it has to be approved by congress. Thats why it was so important for laxalt to get this compact, so he called a meeting with the tribe. D. C. , and we had a meetingngton, behind clod doors with our 4 congressional delegation. Christensen so imagine youre joe ely of the pyramid lake paiute tribe, in your 20s. Yore called in to a meeting with one of the most powerful men in america, senator paul laxalt. With him, nevada senator chic hecht, congresswoman barbara vucanovich, and harry reid. Ely we knew prior to the meeting where senator reid was on this issue. We had a pretty good idea that he would assist us in this process. Reid yeah, i remember the meeting. I didnt say a word. I just watched. Ely senator laxalt is the one that took charge of the meeting, and it was very short. He called a meeting to inform us that he was going to have the californianevada interstate compact ratified, that he understood that we didnt like it, but that was too bad. And then he said, i want you to understand this. Want you to understand that were going to get this ratified, and were going to get it passed and he says, do you understand m i said, yes. And he got up a little bit. He says, do you understand me . I said, yes, then he says, do you understand me . and he stuck his finger about that far from my face. I walked outside and said, were going tkill that compact, and were going to get ts thing settled. Christensen so, over the next weeks and months, they walked the halls of congress, they knocked on every door. They met with the press, they talked to representatives and senators, and they told them what an instice this compact would be. These representatives and senators had not heard this side of the story, but as they began to hear what the cost of this compact would be for the pyramid lake paiute tribe, they began to question the compact. Reid by the time that i was focused on stopping that compact, i already knew my way around the house of representatives, so i felt that i was in a better position than they were, they meaning the laxaltolks. Anthen i did what i cou just to throw a Monkey Wrench in everything. If i didnt want it done, it wouldnt get done. And the first hearing was in the house, and i didnt know the indians at all, but a number of them came from nevada tribes, and they stood and objected to what he was trying to do. It surprised everybody in nevada cause you had paul laxalt and all these big shots, were trying push th through. And these dians stooup and took them on, and the house members felt it was wrong, they were being, as usual, preyed upon. Those indians enlightened me. They stopped it, and i decided after that to try to be some help to them. [applause] man harry reid is the man. I think hes going to make it. Reid thank you very much. Christensen the fall of 1986. Man im kind of leaning toward harry reid. Man 2 personally, i think hes a little wishywashy. Woman im going to support harry reid. Woman 2 senator paul laxalt will be retiring at the end of this term. Laxalt ive done my political bit, and thats it for me. [lively tune playing] reid ive never taken my good fortune for granted. Theres one other thing ive never taken for granted, and thats you. [rousing music plays] tom brokaw there were enough votes to bring about a fundamental shift of power in washington. In nevada, congressman harry reid was a giant killer, winning the senate seat of president reagans close friend, paul laxalt, now retired. Christensen its election night, harry reid has won the senate seat. Big celebration, lots of reporters around, microphones getting stuck in his face. One Reporter Asks him, whats the most important thing youre going to work on . Reid i said, water. Now, frankly, at that time, i didnt know what i was talking about. Man from a staff perspective, one of the things i really appreciated about him is his sort of decisiveness. He would make a decision, and then you would go do the thing. He decided that he was going to saveyramid lake. He decided he was going to end the water war between california and nevada. There were components of doing that that were wildly polically unpopular, and he didnt care. He knew that it was the right thing to do, and he set about doing it. [tires screech] christensen but he doesnt craft a topdown solution like laxalts compact. Instead, he sends one of his top aides, wayne mehl, out to nevada to listen to all of the different interests and try to negotiate a settlement. [slide projector clicking] reid wayne mehl was a craftsman with legislation. His numberone goal was play all the golf he and so, when we start on this, neither of us knew what to do, but we learned. It was onthejob training. Woman wayne met with irrigators, environmentalists, ancity and county and state people and the tribe. He met with everybody. Then he went back to senator reid, and i am told he said, well, its going to be nearly impossible, but we might be able to get a deal here. Reid they were all together on what they wanted done. They just didnt understand how they could Work Together, and thats what we were able to do, was kind of put them together. For the first time in the history of this dispute, we re able to have people sit in the same room. Initially, they didnt talk much [click] [silence] woman we were pretty much locked in a room for about 4 days running. Reids offe was facilitating it with, i remember, cake, and im not sure why we had cake, to try and keep us all sweetened up . The thing that came out of that really was the preliminary settlement agreement, which was an agreement between the tribe and the power company. Female news anchor well, the war has raged on now for 100 years, but today, the fighting stopped, and a peace treaty was signed. Male tv reporter the agreement was reached after a lengthy set of negotiations sponsored by senator harry reid. Tv anchor according to the agreement, the water cant be used for new growth, only in times of drought. And in times when the water is plentiful, it will be used to improve flows along the Truckee River for the pyramid paiute tribes cuiui fish. Reid i think its really a good deal for everybody. I dont know male ns anchor but still to be determined is how fallon farmers, both on and off the reservation, will fare. They have not signed off on the agreement. Chisholm the farmers in tcid began getting nervous about how the discussions were going. They either walked out or were locked out, depending on who you ask. Schank there was lots of things that impacted the truckeecarson irrigation district. The largest was they gave an opportunity for the United States fish and Wildlife Service to buy water rights. People who are on the fringes of being able to maintain their farming business basically are forced to sell out. A lot of the farmland has been purchased, the water rights stripped. Its had a tremendous effect on the area. Reid i went from being the most popular person in rural nevada to being the most unpular. The people of fallon detested me. I came there once for an event. They were just awful. Schank when senator reid came down, there was a few of the oldtime farmers that got together, and one of them rented a gorilla suit. He was not pleased with it. Reid ernie schank is a farmer, a big farmer, and he was one of my big obstacles cause he opposed everything i tried to do. He and peoplethere were other onesthat hung me in effigy. Schank i dont think thats a true story. Uh. I, uh. I have toi have to couch what i say now. Heh heh heh christensen the farmers left the negotiations for two reasons. One was that they believed, and they still believe, that the water is theirs. The second is that they thought that they could win by fighting. What they didnt realize was that the politics of power had shifted all around them, and it wasnt going back. Schank all of a sudden, rural nevada, which once had a metropitan areas, now were at a severe disadvante. Chisholm and you see that all across Rural America these days, where Rural Communities are feeling under threat. The challenge is that in many cases, these Rural Communities were built upon some injustices. We need to think about how to right wrongs, but we also need to consider how we help these communities make adjustments. Schank this story is only one of many that are going on. Its all of the western states and lile townshat oncet now. Thrived are just ghost towns because the people have gone to the city. Christensen theres a strain of american environmentalism that sees reclamation as having built cities and agriculture in an envinment whe they never should have been, that sees the destruction of the environment and the destruction of native peoples cultures and traditions and livelihoods. The negotiated settlement showed that a new deal could be crafted to reengineer these systems to restore the relationship between people and the environment. Chisholm the Truckee River is profoundly different. There are hundreds of thousands of new cottonwood and willow trees. Lahotan cutthroat trout are now recovering. There are fish now upward of 30 pounds being found at pyramid lake. Theres talk about restoring them back to spawning runs in the Truckee River. The wetlands have water rights. Managers can call for that water when they need it. Pyramid lake is recovering. Its a very different setting. To be an environmentalist working on these issues now is you can be in a position of hope. You can see things getting better. Ely oftentimes, you have settlements in any country, or you have an adjudication in a country, then its all done. Its on paper and life goes on and nothing changes. Thats not been the case here. The lake is up, the regions been able to grow, everyones benefited from it, and so you see results soon. We saw results immediately after this settlement was done. Praise the lord. Its good for everyone. Christensen in the end, reclamation did provide for growth in the american west, but not always through agriculture and making the desert bloom. In fact, the explosion of urban growth in the Las Vegas Valley in the late 20th century was made possible by another Reclamation Project. [film projector whirring] the hoover dam, which was built in the 1930s to provide water and power to california, arizona, and nevada. Las vegas really went through 4 distinct phases of growth. [slide projector clicking] it started out as a small frontier town. The building of hoover dam and the expansion of a wartime industry and economy fueled the second phase of urban growth in las vegas. [lively jazz music playing] christensen with the postwar period, we see the emergence of the mobrun gambling city. [music tempo quickening] christensen and then, in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, the expansion of corporate gaming and the growth of an enormous metropolitan area. [lounge music playing] and reid was a key player throhout thaperiod. Was commison, in caning uphe gaming iustry. Re . Stad that y went to you break h legs. , i wt rio no, iid not. Reidthank you,r. Rizzo rio thankou. Christensen . Making it acceptable for wallstreet investment. [opening bell clanging] which led to a massive influx of capital and the transformation of las vegas into the city we know today. [tap shoes clack] women yeeha christensen familyfriendly, resorts for young people. Rowd clamoring] christensen resorts for retired people. Reid i watched las vegas grow, not realizing at the time that it was growing like it was, but as i look back, it grew very rapidly. [bell dings] im from searchlight, and i went to school in henderson, which, at that time, was quite small, vegas w always g to me, and i probably didnt recognize the growth that was taking place before my eyes man were growing, in the last couple of years, by any measure you want, faster thaeverybody could have predicted. [power saw whirring] female tv reporter a new house is built every 20 minutes in clark county for a population in flux6,000 new residents each month. Male tv reporter las vegas, with a population of 1. 6 million. Its the fastestgrowing metropolis in the country. Christensen this explosion of population also led to an increase in demographic diversity. As vegas became increasingly latino, asian american, on top of its historic African American population and the white population. [overlapping chatter] it became a vibrant, workingclass union town where serviceindustry jobs paid a good middleclass wage that people could survive and thrive on, raise their families, enjoy the outdoors. Man nevadans take great pride in the Outdoor Recreational opportunities that our great state has to offer. Unfortunately, nevada has 87 publly ownedands, whh means th most ofhe reeation mt take pce on our publ lands. Gardless precting t multipluse of r lands nevada very imrtant tour citizs. [tffic noi] baca development in nevada, and Southern Nevada in particular, started to happen fairly quickly and you could see this shift. You had the increase in the city of las vegas, north las vegas, city of henderson, and clark county butting up against the desert and starting to encroach on native habitats and desert areas. There needed to be a solution to come in to balance these interests of growth and our native landscapes. Ning christensen the solution that was fit used to overcome this problem was land swaps. A developer would find some private land worthy of protectionsay, up in the mountainsand offer to swap that land to the federal government in order to be able to develop one of the public land parcels in the Las Vegas Valley. Reid they would give the federal government that land, and they would get something in exchange for it. As time went on, it became a corrupt situation. [hammering, power saws whirring] christensen the danger and fear here was that growth in the Las Vegas Valley could come to a screaming halt. Reid saw this problem and set about to craft a solution. Man in congress, the staff is everything. If you have a good staff, youre gonna have a successful congressman or senator. Man we have both of our United States senors, harry reid and john ensign with us. Reid i didnt know they were gonna be here. Im ready to leave. Arent you . [laughter] lopez i was with senator ensign for 14 years. He was a very pragmatic republican senator. Ensign the usda can certify. Reid john ensign was a conservative republican, but our relationship in the senate was just terrific. I never had anyone to work with in the senate that was more reasonable and pragmatic thanohn ensign. Sign and i had a deal. If you have a problem with anything going on in my staff, you call me. I would do the same with him. And as a result of that, our staffs knew that they were to Work Together. Lopez they brought me in the room with the top staffers from each office. We were told that you will Work Together. You will not disparage each other. The staffs cannot say anything bad about each other, and if you do, you will get fired. Regardless of whatever differences we have, we are gonna Work Together for the benefit of the state of nevada. And that set the whole tone, and that set the whole tone for all the accomplishments that we achieved on a bipartisan basis. Reid we had to do something differently, and thats where the snipla came in. Christensen sniplaba. Loz snipplema. Chisholm snipplema. Christensen the Southern Nevada. Baca public land. Lopez management act. Chisholm snipla. Anderson truly horrible acronym. Baca its one of the weirdest acronyms, but i love snplma, yeah. Ensign this bill fixes the faulty Land Exchange process. Loz john ensign was the sponsor of snplma at the time, and senator reid and senator bryan were the Senate Champions for getting that legislation through. Reid well change the way we do things in the state of nevada regarding land. Anderson snplma, as its lovingly referred to, was the seminal piece of legislation that created the land se paradigm for the Las Vegas Valley. Lopez the concept was instead of exchanging land, just auction public land to the highest bidder. That way, you bring market forces, and you just put it out in the open and you auction land. Man open this bid at 250,000. Open this bid at 11 million. Reid ha a public auion and none of this tding business. Man now0. Mber 179 high bidder. Baca it creates a level Playing Field for everybody. Man he says hes out. 14,200,000. Close the bid here at 14,200,000. Reid the ney that came from the land would go back into family sensitive things in nevada. Baca everything from lake tahoe, building parks and trails, restoration projects, investing in visitors centers. Man parking areas, access that allow people to get into the outdoors. Lopez over its life, snplma generated over 3 billion. Man 47. That mans a poker player, i think. Christensen in many ways, snplma built on the successes of the negotiated settlement on the Truckee River that you could craft a new deal between a growing urban area and the environment. This is perhaps an exame of government at its best. It works and people dont even notice it. Chisholm for the first time, its really connecting las vegas with the environment. And for the first time, youre beginning to see how, through these investments, las vegas is getting woven back into that landscape. Chstensen hile snpa was a bipartisan compromise that worked in urban nevada, crafting the same kinds of solutions in rural nevada was not so easy. Chisholm so the 1990s were a time of great optimism for the environmtal movent. I mean, you had a democratic president , you had Bruce Babbitt as a secretary of the interr. Reform of grazing, reform of reclamation, reform of mining were all being discussed and being considered. And it seemed possible that types of changes would be made. But there was also, in some ways, a powerful wind that was blowing from Rural Communities that were concerned about the community. Of the environmental in rural nevada, theres a lot of distrust of government and of harry reid in particular. In 1999, harry reid was a Democratic Senate whip. He was a master of Senate Procedures and policies, and he helped push through a wilderness bill in northern nevada. It was really the environmentalists dream of what black rockhigh rock should look like. Part of the reason that occurred is that the hunting, offroad, Mining Community didnt think it would pass, and they didnt feel like they needed to engage. Of course, harry reid surprised his staff and got it passed. Baca black rockhigh rock was a wilderness area that had been created largely from the conservation voice, but that voice had not taken into consideration some of the other interests and other stakeholders, such as hunters and fishermen and some of the more activeuse folks whod been using it for a long time. Johnson i am native american by heritage. Im an engineering geologist by profession. Im an outdoorsman by passion, really. My earliest memory in life is my father butchering a deer on the Kitchen Table in our cabin. Ive hunted from the time that i could hold a rifle and hold a bow. I have lived it. I have loved it. We were in opposition to that bill. The bill offered us a number of problems, as it did to much of nevada. For hunters, it was disastrous as it was for certain miners, certain ranchers, et cetera. For example, the impacts on huntersthe wilderness boundary was set at a particular road. It would be a 5mile wilderness across the valley to a Mountain Range that we formerly hunted with no access to it at all. All of our jeep trails were cut off. Sportsmen, for example, chukar hunters, for a day hunt or for a 2day hunt to walk 5 miles across the valley to get to the mountains, to climb up to a spring, to even find chukar or other upland game, it was a physical impossibility. So it essentially eliminated entire Mountain Ranges from hunting. Christensen and this wasnt the first time wilderness bills had come under criticism in nevada. In fact, they had been increasingly controversial since the 1980s. Man im here with some full and parttime residents of jarbidge, nevada. Were standing on a road that doesnt go anywhere anymore. It used to go to some places that these people were quite fond of. Woman we need this road for multiple uses. We need it for fishing and hunting and fuel for the winter months, and we cant get to em unless they open this roadp. Man the attraction for us was the scenery and the accessibility. Y we cant have picnics and go camping. We need toe free so we can hunt with a vehicle, cause older people who dont like to walk cant climb up the mountains and hunt for deer like the younger people can. Johnson the senator took a great deal of criticismin my opinion, rightfully sofor the wording that was present and the boundaries that were present and the restrictions that were placed upon this land. But to his credit, he realized that at least some of this criticism could be valid. Reid yes, a lot of them were. Wilderss was hated. Johnson he sent one of his top aides, kai anderson back to nevada. Anderson working on wilderness bills with reid was a great lesson for me and sort of outreach to a whole range of constituencies, many of whom werent super thrilled that my boss was in the senate or th i worked for him. Johnson right off the bat, i mean, i d a significant level of distrust because i felt this had been improperly rammed down our throat. Anderson once you sit down with people and talk through issues, you pretty quickly come to the conclusion that even if youre not politically aligned, all the people i worked with out there love the state of nevada. Johnson there is no place like nevada. Anderson theres sort of two diffent venues for having those sorts of conversations. One is the sort of classic open public meeting. You take all comers. Those are important, particularly from the perspective of making sure that youre connected with everybody who would have an interest, whos paying attention in a fashion that they have an opportunity to have a say. We would go until nobody else wanted to talk. Ive missed flights doing those sorts of meetings. People do like to talk, and its important that you hear them. [cheering and booing] thatditesolof those wilderness bills. A lot of the work ended up happening after those public meetings, with sort of private side conversations. Some people view things happening behind closed doors as untoward, and i think thats a real misconception. And the reason i say that is, people arent inclined to share their bottom line in public. Theyre gonna tell you what their preferred course is, but theyre not gonna tell you what they can live with. Aits not human nature, and bits not very stregic to have the other side understand exactly what youre willing to do. We would sit down with folks, whether it was in the ranching industry or the Mining Industry or in the Wilderness Community and say, look, tell us what is most important to you. Tell us what youre most worried about and tell us the truth. Were not gonna share that information with the folks that you view as your opponents. Johnson kai met with me first, and then later i assembled presentatives of a number of sportsmen groups and individuals who knew the area. Kai, to his benefit, not only met with us and the department of wildlife, but went in the field with ranchers who had similar concerns. And we expressed our concerns to kai. We laid out on this conference table detailed maps of each of the wilderness areas. We delineated needed Access Points on existing roads into the wilderness areas that had been closed off. Reid if they had a compint that was valid, we had maps with us, and wed just change it theydall me, is that ok . Id say, sure, go ahead and do that. Johnson at best we wouldnt get everything we asked for. Anderson at the end of the day, when we cut a deal, were gonna try to cut a deal that does as good a job at minimizing the things that youre concerned about and maximizing the things that you want. Johnson this process came to an end when an amendment was passed through congress. [gunshot] quite frankly, we got most of what we wanted as did the nchers, as did the department of wildlife, as did some of the miningnterests. And quite frankly, we have some disappointments. All in all, with that amendment, my conclusion is it has worked pretty well. Reid my work on wilderness damaged my popularity significantly in rural nevada, but it all turned out for the better. Because after i got my wilderness legislation done, i would go to these communities. No one ever raised wilderness as an issue, because once its in place, people are proud of it. Johnson probably the closest i will ever come to a religious experience is being on my horse on the crest of a Mountain Range in nevada with a tremendous vista in front of me. You are just at one with the earth. Christensen there are a lot of different ways of using political power. One of the ways is bringing people together to craft a solution, but sometimes its using power behind the scenes. Sometimes its making a phone call. Man one of the most Important Energy sources for the Nevada Power Company is the reid gardn power plant, located just off interstate near moapa. The plant supplies arly 40 f the power for the las vegas community. Man reid gardner was the main power plant to te electric to las vegas when they first put it in. They located it out here next to the reservation, which is not unusual. It rlly justorphed into the big pollutiofactor that just put jury onto the rez. Man roblems first arose in the unfinished boiler complex, when a variety of construction tradesmen began complaining of respiratory prlems 2 wks ago. Woman when i was growing up, i didnt realize that we were being affected. My friends, thinking back on my life, they would cough all the time. My brother was working down there. Hed always be covered in black. His clothes would be black, his face would be black. He died of an enlarged heart. Lee you know, its a coalburner, so they had coal ash and they put it up on the hill. They actually put it everywhere. And of course, when it dried out, the dust blew, it would look like a big gray cloud blowing off from top of the hill right on us. Baca in the 2000s, there was a proposal to expand a coal ash pond at reid gardner, and there were proposals to add additional coalpowered power plants around nevada. Woman this is all the statementsrom people of 2006. Baca there was a significant amount of backlash from the tribal communities and from conservationists regarding this potential expansion of coal power. Chisholm it was really Sierra Clubs Beyond Coal Campaign that put the focus throughout the country, but particularly in the west, on closing down coal plants. Lee the sierra club stepped up, and they had the resources, the attorneys, scientists, and they come in and theyas helping the tribe fight this battle. Woman it is a david vs. Goliath fight. Fewer than 400 moapa paiutes taking on nv energy, trying to shut down the reid gardner coal plant. Man heres the bottom line. You at home pay for electricity made at reid gardner with your money. Moapa paiutes say they pay for that electricity with their lives. Lee we filed a lawsuit against nevada power, the tribe and sierra club, and thats where things got real. Man i am paiute. I am proud of who i am, and im proud of all of you to be here. Thank you very much. Raborn they brought home their message through a 50mile walk from the moapa reservation to las vegas that took 3 days. The tribe ultimately succeeded, convincing the public, convincing the utility that owned the plant that it was time for them to close the plant after over 50 years. [explosion] reid and so i started looking at that power plantexacerbated heart conditions and everything else. So i made up my mind i was gonna get rid of coal in nevada. I read in the paper that they were going to open 4 new coalfired generating plants in nevada. I called mary, i called my vegas operation. I said, im not gonna let that happen. And what i did, i called a hedge fund. I told the guy, look, you back away from that coal plant, or i will get even with you. I dont know what im gonna do, but ill figure something out. [phone dial tone] biden every time i hear a dial tone, ill think of harry. Chisholm its a little bit of a joke in nevada around, you know, the harry reid phone call. I want to see the grazing rits bought out of great Basin National Park. And he hangs up. I want to plant some joshua trees. Where do find em . And he hangs up. Pelosi harry . [dial tone] christensen by this time, people knew that they would write harry reid off at their own peril. He knew how to get things done, and they could either get on boaror be ft behind. Baca while senator reid was working to kill coal plants, at the same time, the Nevada State Legislature was actually making its own ves towards ending coalower. Atkinson expand Renewable Energy, retirement of coal ants. Althose in favor, say aye. All aye. Baca senate bill 123 was passed. It basically ended coal power in nada, and it mandated that there would be no more power plants and that the existing power plants had to be atkinson ok, we are adjourned. Raborn right around that same time was, you know, the recession. Woman the stock market is now down 21 . Man cause were now down 43 . Man the dow traders are standing there watching in amazement, and i dont blame em. Raborn in d. C. , senator and his leadership staff and Congress Worked to pass the american reinvestment and recovery act. Reid what were trying to do is stop a dression. Thats why president obama says that this bill is so important to the american people. Its not only important for the short term to create millions of jobs, but itll also do things for the longterm, like start doing something about our energy grid. If we can produce Renewable Energy and take it someplace, it creates thousands of jobs in nevada, and thats what this legislation is all about. Raborn there was 6 billion in at act specifically for Renewable Energy development an transmission line development. Anderson the staff quickly put together the plan that would lead to development of transmission in nevada that would connect the northern and southern grids in the state for the first time electrically. Baca an interesting element of this transition from coal power to green Energy Sources is some of the social justice component that you see at play with the moapa band of paiute who saw the end of this power plant that had been making their community ill, and they transitioned and really became part of the Green Energy Movement by building their own solar power plant. Reid this power plant in moapa is really the first Solar Project to be built on tribal lands, certainly in nevada and likely in the whole country. Lee senator reid, in our opinion, was for us. The actual actions that he took, im not sure about, but i know there was influence there cause hes a very powerful person and he was a friend to us. [busy signal] [dialing] christensen so behind the scenes, reid is helping to set up this architecture for a transition to Renewable Energy. Hes talking to the companies that want to build new coal power plants in nevada, and hes saying no way, but i will let you build a transmission line. Hes calling up the mayor of los angeles, and hes persuading him to agree to buy por from the moapa solar facility. [pho ringing] reid so i called the mayor of l. A. , and i said, i know youre trying to go to a Renewable Energy. I can get you 600, 700 megawatts within a period of time. In a year, well build a facility. Can you use it . He said, you bet. The indians sold their power to los angeles, and now theyve added to it and done more. Lee the moapa solar, its sitting on 2,200 acresphotovoltaic. Its a fixed system, as opposed to single axis, which tracks the sun one way or a double axis which tracks it both directions. Christensen each of these pieces adds up to a dramatic transformation of the Energy System in nevada and the american west. Baca its an interestin example of how you can have the Just Transition. Lee a Just Transition means that as we transition from one form of energy to another, from fossil fuels to renewable, as we transition our economy, that we also address historical injustices, like the injustices to the moapa tribe. The main thing is it gives us the means, financial means to grow. We got guaranteed income, and its not based on crops or the weather or floods or nothing. This is based on that the suns gonna shine, youre gonna get electric out of it. The Credit Rating for the tribe went up, and the fact that we did this industrial scale solar, it kind of put us in a different kind of a club. Simmons we led the way. We were breaking the ground for solar, especially for indian tribes. And of course were really proud of that. And its changed the work on a solar plant, you know, you can make enough money to chan your whole life. So i think we were ae to do that for the younger people. We created a name for moapa, and wherever we go were known for that. Christensen in the obama administration, reid is at the height of his powers as the leader of the Democratic Senate caucus. Hes the most powerful democratic politician, aside from obama, but hes still fighting a battle that has dogged his whole career, and thats the push to bury highlevel Nuclear Waste at Yucca Mountain tt began with the screw nevada bill in 17. Anderson Nuclear Waste policy act passed in 1982, the same year that reid was elected to the house. Basically, it laid out a process by which the u. S. Government would look at a variety of permanent storage repositories for highleveluclear waste. Man that did not occur, and it did not occur because politics, not science dictated the conclusion. Man senors voti in the affirmive. Anderson growing weary of actually doing that scientific process in987, theongress, in its wisdom, decided that it would rewrite that bill and choose yucca as the preferred alternative. Chisholm Yucca Mountain was a si that was identified called the nevada test site,as which is where the federal governments early atomic testing occurred. Man . 2. 1 [explosion] baca it felt like it was coming back to that old narrative. Nevada was a wasteland at Nobody Needed to care about what they were putting here. Woman now you may be wondering why Yucca Mountain is being considered a suitable site to dump Nuclear Waste. Anderson that was not a scientific process. That was tom foley representing the state of washington, taking care of hanford. That was jim wright representing the state of texas, taking care of deaf smith county, texas, and senator reid being a freshman. Man the yeas are 61, the nays are 28, and the conference port is agreed to. Reid i think its important to recognize that Nuclear Waste is not a partisan issue. Chisholm republicans, democrats, ranchers, miners, urban people, outdoor peopleeverybody knew that this was. Reid the screw nevada bill. Woman the screw nevada bill. Man the screw nevada bill. Anderson it wasnt chosenn the merits. It was chosen for pure political reasons. Man who has only 2 senators, no political clout whatsoever, and who lives in a place that is perceived at least to be nothing but desert and wasteland . And they said, aha nevada. Man we in nevada will not stand for it. [applause] man a coalition of elected officials, environmentalists, and businessmen is waging a guerrilla war to kill a project they believe has been shoved down their throats. Reid the repulsive and mendacious political backstabbing represented by the deal cut against the people of nevada should bring a blush of shame to the face of every meer of coress whoas pported is nucle waste legislatn. Ll, frany, i was new senator, and i thought we were doomed. I didnt know what to do about it. [explosion] man workers dlled and blasted a arter tunnel. Reid the biggest opening we g was bill clinton. Al gore, to his credit. They knew what a big deal this was in nevada, so they came out publicly opposed to Yucca Mountain. That was one reason we were able to stall it as long as we did. Raborn as senator reid gained more and more leadership in the senate, he was also able to use that power to put a stranglehold on the appropriations process and starve the project of funding. Reid i used my seat on the Appropriations Committee to help cut 30 million from the waste site budget. I urge the president to veto legislation that would put a temporary dump at the nevada test site. I wont quit until my colleagues understand that transporting Nuclear Waste to nevada is dangerous. And we dont want a Nuclear Waste dump in our backyard. [children laughing] anderson the Nuclear Industry has spent 4 decades underestimating senator reid and his ability to fight back. Instead, they picked a fight with the wrong guy. Man the senator from nevada. Reid unsupportable. Mikulski the senator from nevada. Reid totally unsupportable. We have the nevada test site, Nellis Air Force base, fallon air naval station, hawthorne ammunition depot. We have done our share. Its not compatible with tourism, which is our nuerone industry. Peoe are afraid of it, based upon chernobyl, based upon the experience of the people in st. George, where they have the highest cancer rate in the world, literally. We dont want it if its 1,700 ft underound or 10,000 feet underground. When nevada was first mentioned as a possible dump site for Nuclear Waste, i said, no way. My goal is to deliver these signed petitions to the president and impress upon him that nevadans dont want a nuclear dump in their backyard. Man joining me now live is u. S. Senator harry reid. Whats your strongest argument to keeping Nuclear Waste out of nevada . Reid how are you gonna get it here . We had 400,000 truck accidents last year. 14,000 of those dealt with hazardous merials. We had 2,100 train wrecks last year. Over 1,000 of those dealt with hazardous materials. This is an accident waiting to happen. Man and they say most americans will join the opposition once they see the web of highways and railroads for transporting the waste from 131 sites in 45 states. Chisholm in order to move the radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain for longterm storage, one of the proposed approaches was to move it by rail car, particularly through an area called garden valley. At the heart of one of the remotest parts of the great basin. Baca it would have permanently altered that landscape. You have these beautiful Mountain Ranges that encircle this massive basin that was once a giant inland sea. It really takes you back in time. It shows you some of the most essential parts of nevada. Reid part of that wonderful place is a man whos a famous, famous, worldfamous artist. Name is heizerMichael Heizer. Anderson who is Michael Heizer . Um. Charles kuralt Michael Heizer is a modern sculptor. Instead of a chisel, Michael Heizer usually uses dynamite and bulldozers to create hisrt. Reid he workefor 40 years building this monument in the middle of nowhere. Kuralt in the nevada desert, hours from any big town, he has created massive pieces of sculpture from concrete and steel and granite and compacted earth. Anderson hes a scientist, hes an artist, hes an engineerall in the sort of pursuit of building this thing that im not gonna describe, cause i cant. Baca city, created by Michael Heizer, is a place that. The. Just. Chisholm city is. Its hard to describe it until you walk it. Reid it is a mile and a half long. It represents all these great artistic things that have taken place over the centuries. I first ard about this project out in the middle ofowhere. And i thought, who cares . But all you had to do was go look at it, and you know why people would care about it. First of all, to meet him is to meet a true iconic american. Theres nobody like him. Heizer you got my rock in the. . Obviously, theres a lot of acreage in this part of the world that isnt developed. So theres a lot of potential, lot of agencies and opportunistic people see all this backcountry and want to exploit it. A highway from arizona through here. The mx missile silo truck, agricultural things cae these water companies. Its just endless. I think he ended up liking it. I think he did. Yeah, im pretty sure he did. I think after he sat out for a while, he liked it. Reid Michael Heizer was truly a nevadan, and i did everything i could to help with that project of his. I was bound and determined to preserve that city, that area. Anderson senator reid and his team were thinking through how to protect the landscape scale artwork by Michael Heizer in a fashion that was appropriate for the scope and scale of the project. Christensen its not lost on him and his staff that where city is located is also the location through which the Energy Department wanted to run a railroad to bring highlevel Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain. Anderson senator reid set about trying to have the president of the United States use his authority under the Antiquities Act, an act which dates back to 1906, to protect place rough an exetivein that proclamation. Baca the Antiquities Act gave president s the authority through executive order to cate National Monuments. Christensen National Monuments have protected a wide variety of special placesfrom buildings to battlefield graveyards to mount rushmore. Raborn president obama was in the white house. Senator reid was very close to him. And senator reid cared deeply about the potential ability to make sure that that area was preserved in perpetuity. That was a moment in time that needed to bseized. Reid i was with president obama on an airplane. Said, mr. President , theres this thing in nevada. He said, describe it. I cant explain to you what it is. Try to describe this to somebody. And i said, mr. President , i really would like you to do an executive order creating a national monument. Anderson some people would say, well, that shortcircuited the system. I dont think it really did. I think that folks worked through the system best they could, came to an impasse, and choreographed a path forward that was a different one than using the legislative process. Reid it stops that land forever being spoiled. Therell be no railroads going through that land. Right now, all the drling equment thehad up there, it has now been ground up for junk steel. Theres nothing there now. They would have to start all over again. We dont have Nuclear Waste, and i dont see it in the future. Baca his career was bookended by protecting great Basin National Park and basin and range. Hes covered the mountains. Now hes covered the basin and the ranges. Chisholm we have 70 wilderness areas because of him. We have 2 large National Monuments because of him. Hes also demonstrated the way to work through tough land use issues around wilderness, around national parks, National Monuments. And the model that he pioneered can be used around the country. Nevadas profoundly changed in the time from when he started to when he left. And hes really helped bring us along from that old west into the new west, and hes left us with a very different legacy. Christensen the old west is defined by the legacy of conquest and the dominance of the region by extractive industriesmining, logging, ranching, and irrigated farming. The new west is defined by the demographic changes that come with the rapid expansion of urban areas, the rise of the service economy, and the rise of people caring about the environment and about the amenities they enjoy from the outdoors. He saw the changes that were coming to the west. He rode those changes throughout his career. He was an agent of those changes. Baca our new westits a different place. There probably are a lot of mixed feelings, honestly, for some people, about that new west versus theld west. There are some people who probably would love to go back to that untrammeled feeling of the old west. Schank his legacy is not very well looked at by most of the people in rural nevada. In order to appreciate rural nevada, you have to understand that it is part of the complete nevada. And so i think that thats a very, very important component that many, many politicians do not really look at. Christensen harry reid was also a complicated character. Environmentalists sometimes found themselves at odds with him because he supported mining and he supported las vegas getting the water it needed to grow. And this complexity enabled him to see the kind of Pragmatic Solutions that eluded purists and ideologues. Baca the competing interests, the stakeholders with different needs and perspectives will always remain. And were always going to need somebody like a senator reid to come in and help negotiate through those competing interests. Chisholm this was about the politics of the possible. Harry reid has pointed to a model of how work can get done, not just in nevada, but i also think nationally. You need to think pragmatically, but you also need to be willing to make deals. Lopez the legislation that a republican and Democratic Senate duo were able to accomplish together i think could be a template for the whole nation to look at and understand that working together pays huge dividends for your constituents, and they all appreciate it. No matter republicans, democrats, independentsyour constituents will appreciate the fact if you can deliver on qualityofli promises. Johnson im not shy in saying harry reid has done more for nevada outdoors than any politician ever in history. Baca problem is, especially right now, theres this sort of zero sum gain, where no ones willing to give anything. Part of what senator reid brought to the dialogue is that you can have 100 of nothing if youre not willing to give something away. Christensen he showed that bipartisan compromises can work to protect millions of acres of wilderness. He saw the tremendous potential of Renewable Energy in the nevada desert. He saw conflicts that had raged on the Truckee River for a century. He showed how development could be balanced with protection of the environment in public lands. Hes also provided people in a major metropolitan area access to those public lands. Ive asked harry reid many times if there was a grand vision that he had that stemmed from his love of paiute springs and animated, really, his whole career. Re no. I just did one thing at a time. Never looked at any grand vision of anything. Christensen but i think when we look back, it sure looks like there was some kind of vision there, and i think there is a vision there for a new kind of pragmatic environmental politics for nevada, for the american west, and for the whole country. Announcer this program was made possible in part by caesars entertainment, tom campion, utopia foundation, the cloobeck family, masimo foundation, mgm resorts, and nv energy. ÷e÷edddd