Dam’s renewable energy inspiring

President Barack Obama is a gifted speaker, but he missed an opportunity to crystallize his administration's push to develop renewable energy during a recent visit to a solar power panel facility outside Boulder City.

Obama fights to be heard above a chorus of critics of the technological and economical practicality of solar, wind and geothermal energy. Billions have been spent to improve the technology and fast-track the production of solar panels and wind turbines.

An America going green turns some faces red with rage, and Obama used his Boulder City campaign stop to remind skeptics of brighter days ahead.

But had the president held his speech just a few miles away at Hoover Dam, the symbolism would have been undeniable even to most cynical eyes. There's something about that place that renews my faith in the American story.

Hoover Dam not only epitomized the potential of renewable energy for a nation mired in the Great Depression, it opened the West to the infinite possibilities of economic development. It created needed jobs in desperate days and helped facilitate a wave of employment for generations to come.

It made modern Los Angeles possible. It made Las Vegas more than a railroad watering hole.

There were a few things it didn't do, though.

For one, Hoover Dam historian Dennis McBride reminds me, its construction didn't send the Earth tilting off its axis and spinning out of orbit. That was a fear of some naysayers at the time.

Nor did it cause catastrophic earthquakes capable of killing scores of citizens hundreds of miles away. (It did cause some small quakes, though.)

And contrary to the race-driven fretting of an Arizona governor -- something that seems to run in the blood of politicians in that state -- Hoover Dam's creation didn't cause a mass influx of illegal immigrants from China to start farms along the tamed lower Colorado River.

"People had all kinds of fears about the project," says McBride, co-author of "Building Hoover Dam: An Oral History of the Great Depression" and curator of history at the Nevada State Museum at the Springs Preserve. "There was a lot of fear of the unknown."

Although we take the structural wonder and utility of Hoover Dam for granted these days, its creation was political and controversial.

Hysterical fears aside, the politics of funding a public-private partnership on that scale could have derailed the project. The design challenges were some of the greatest since the building of the Great Pyramids. Large-scale hydroelectric production was no sure bet eight decades ago.

But Republicans and Democrats worked together -- not out of altruism, but out of substantial self-interest -- and the political issues were resolved.

Far from becoming the fiasco some predicted, Hoover Dam came to symbolize American ingenuity and hard work for generations to come.

It wasn't easy. Legions swore it couldn't be done and even shouldn't be done.

"Many construction processes were invented at Hoover Dam because nothing had been done like that before," McBride says. "Things happened that no one could predict going in. They realized that in some ways this was a crap shoot, but they made it work."

Clearly, the president hopes to recapture that spirit with his renewable energy initiative. During his speech, he conjured the imagery of Hoover Dam as he stood near a far less spectacular solar facility.

"Even today," Obama said, "it stands as a testimony to American ingenuity, American imagination, the power of the American spirit -- a testimony to the notion we can do anything."

That is, if we can manage to work together. When warring political parties set aside their differences and reach consensus, much can be accomplished -- and benefit the nation for generations.

When wise government investment combines with private-sector creativity, anything is possible. Hoover Dam proved that, but I am left wondering if we could build something as grand today.

Would it be torn asunder by politics before the first footing was set?

Call me sentimental, but I'd like to think we're better than that, and that we have brighter days ahead.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295.
He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.