Yosemite’s conservationists: an Earth Day message

Editor’s note: the following is the introduction from Enemies of Energy, a forthcoming report from the Capital Research Center. 

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Born in 1892 and now firmly opposed to the continued use of oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear fuels, the Sierra Club is the oldest and most iconic of the anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report. Today, these enemies of energy are often referred to as “environment” or “climate” advocates. But this wasn’t always the case. For a half century or so after the Sierra Club was created, it was equally, if not more common, to identify them as “conservationists.”

The distinction is important. Those early conservationists were fighting to conserve landscapes and creatures treasured by humanity. Their primary goal was to enhance our general happiness and prosperity, rather than portray us and the reliable energy we need to survive as threats to the “environment” or the “climate.” The creation of our greatest and oldest national parks and the saving of the bald eagle from extinction are just two of many objectively grand accomplishments that can be credited to the work of the conservationist movement generally, and the early Sierra Club specifically.

Ironically, an early Sierra Club failure provides the best example of the distinction between conservationism and anti-energy “environmentalism.”

Formerly known as the “twin” of Yosemite Valley, because of its equally towering granite walls and waterfalls, Hetch Hetchy Valley is roughly 16 miles northwest of its supposed sibling. But since 1923, Hetch Hetchy hasn’t been a “valley” at all, but instead a reservoir for a hydroelectric dam that has provided water and power for California’s Bay Area. Flooding the valley cut 300 feet from the view of Hetch Hetchy’s once awe-inspiring natural landscape. It has also denied several generations the opportunity to tour and stay within what was once a second, marvelous valley inside of Yosemite National Park.

More than century ago the Sierra Club began the ultimately futile effort to save Hetch Hetchy. Environmental historian Robert W. Righter has noted that this dam battle has been inaccurately portrayed as a fight between “wilderness and civilization,” where only the needs of nature or human happiness could prevail, but not both. [i]

In his 2006 book, The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism, Righter tells a different tale:  ^[ii]

The problem with this assertion is that no matter how we might choose to define wilderness, it was not an issue in the Hetch Hetchy fight. The defenders of the valley consistently advocated development, including roads, hotels, winter sports amenities, and the infrastructure to support legions of visitors. The land use battle joined over one question: Would the valley be used for water storage or nature tourism?  ^[iii]

It took decades for the Sierra Club to devolve from yesteryear’s pro-progress protectors of Yosemite’s natural beauty into the anti-energy zealots that they are today. Even in the late 1960s, as explained later in this report, the Sierra Club was an important advocate for the construction of California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power station.

There are still a few old school conservationist NGOs.

The most prominent is The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Reporting $1.5 billion in annual revenue for the year ending June 2024, TNC is nearly four times wealthier than the richest of the anti-energy groups profiled in this report. ^[iv]

But unlike all of them, TNC has demonstrated that it can be somewhat realistic about the world’s need for reliable energy production. An October 2018 TNC white paper endorsed quadrupling the supply of zero emissions nuclear power (from 7.8 percent of total world energy to 33 percent) as a path towards a “sustainable” energy future by 2050. While the report did (unrealistically) propose that 54 percent of world energy could come from unreliable or “renewable” sources, it also conceded that “fossil fuels” will still be necessary for 17 percent of the total. ^[v]

Advocates for energy abundance can easily find concerns worth criticizing in TNC’s energy agenda, such as the support for weather dependent wind and solar energy. TNC has also earned well-deserved criticism for its bare-knuckles tactics in securing land for preservation, most infamously and recently in the removal of ranchers from the Point Reyes seashore in California. ^[vi]

But those valid concerns aside, it is both inaccurate and unproductive to claim that TNC is an anti-energy group. The Nature Conservancy of today and the Sierra Club of yesterday both operated as if reliable energy was critical for human prosperity, which in turn created the wealth that made their conservation objectives possible.

That era should return.

As an example, there is a movement advocating for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Predictably, the major objection is the need to replace the water and power provided by the dam. Civilian nuclear power and America’s natural gas abundance did not exist when the dam was built, but today both options could be used to provide the power and desalinated ocean water necessary to replace the Hetch Hetchy output. Whether and when this might become economically sensible is a challenge for engineers and politicians to sort out. That is how we got the dam in the first place, after all.

But today’s superior energy options allow us to make superior decisions regarding how much of the natural world we can afford to protect. If the old Sierra Club still existed and took up this cause, then the argument for restoring Hetch Hetchy would be far harder to dismiss.

The Sierra Club and the other NGOs profiled in this report never needed to become the primary enemies of reliable energy. Advocates for both conservation and energy abundance could and should once again become—quite literally— natural allies.

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[i] Righter, Robert W. The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford University Press. 2006. 332 pages. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-over-Hetch-Hetchy-Environmentalism/dp/0195313097 [ii] Righter, Robert W. The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford University Press. 2006. 332 pages. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-over-Hetch-Hetchy-Environmentalism/dp/0195313097 [iii] Righter, Robert W. The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Oxford University Press. 2006. 332 pages. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-over-Hetch-Hetchy-Environmentalism/dp/0195313097 [iv] Nature Conservancy. (EIN: 53-0242652). Propublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed March 20, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530242652 [v] “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed March 20, 2026. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/ [vi] Covello, Keely. “Nature Conservancy secured $10 million grant before finalizing Point Reyes ranch takeover; ranchers kept in the dark.” Tri-State Livestock News. October 10, 2025. Accessed March 20, 2026. https://www.tsln.com/news/nature-conservancy-secured-10-million-grant-before-finalizing-point-reyes-ranch-takeover-ranchers-kept-in-the-dark/

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/yosemites-conservationists-an-earth-day-message/