Environmentalists sometimes come in unlikely shapes.

Take Congressman Dan Lungren, for example. A Republican representing Sacramento's eastern suburbs, Lungren is about as conservative as Golden State legislators get--with a two percent lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters and a seven percent rating from Environment America.

Even so, Lundren is increasingly making waves with his radically green proposal to blow up the O'Shaughnessy Dam, which serves as the backbone of Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Destroying the dam would once again give nature-lovers the chance to experience this long-submerged piece of wild California.

Hetch Hetchy is the primary source of clean drinking water for nearly ten percent of Californians and creates hydroelectric power for millions more. The California Department of Water Resources estimated that the overall cost of destroying the dam could range from $2 billion up to $10[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]