Remembering Brent Blackwelder

Brent Blackwelder (right), while President of Friends of the Earth, at an endorsement of Senator Edwards (left). October 2007. Credit: John Edwards, Wikimedia Commons.

Brent Blackwelder recently passed away. He had a long and important career as an environmental leader in our nation’s capital. His passing is worth publishing a trinity of short remembrances by three of us who worked with him.

I met Brent in the 1980s at a few of the old Dam Buster’s conferences put on by, or at least loosely sponsored by, the American Rivers Conservation Council (now American Rivers). Brent was a pretty dynamic east-coast kind of guy — complete with red slacks and much to say. I will always be grateful to Brent for the help he provided Friends of the River and our American River Coalition partners in defeating the early Auburn dam authorization bills in the Congress.

More importantly, Brent was part of the generation that helped to push the “pause button” on the nation’s dam-building frenzy — including the cost-sharing reforms that did so much to cut off the supply of subsidies to the dam builders. That generation is passing away, and the nation is slipping back into the barely questioned assumption that dam builders are entitled to massive taxpayer subsidies.

Yes, the subsidies are crawling back over the ramparts of fiscal discipline that Brent had helped to build. This generation and future generations will have to fight to keep the anti-subsidy legacy of the Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter (and even Pat Brown) Administrations. Subsidies matter. The dam builders never really sleep. Neither can we.

~~Ron

Flowers sprout up through the flowing water of the American River. FOR Archives.

I remember standing at the doors of the Capitol entrance to the House of Representative in ’79 (in those days we were allowed to get that close) as Brent buttonholed Members to vote against the Energy & Water Appropriations bill. As the Executive Director for EPC he gave me a closet office next to Marc Reisner who was in the early stages of researching Cadillac Desert.  Brent always had time to foster those in the fight — and especially to defeat those dam subsidies!

He will be deeply missed.

~~P.S.

The New Executive Office Building, a federal executive branch building located in Washington D.C., where Brent frequented during his enduring environmental career. Public domain.

Brent had an extraordinary career, touched so many lives, made our country and the planet a better place, and along life's journey, made a difference, over and over again.

When I came to Washington in February 1974 to work at CEQ, the first person I met was Brent. At the time, I was working to expose a dirty water supply contract that the Bureau of Reclamation and the controversial Westlands Water District in California which had been negotiated behind closed doors and stuffed with bulging subsidies on top of a massive water grab. I briefed Brent. Next thing I know, OMB’s Bureau of Reclamation budget examiner was standing at my NEOB door. Brent had tipped him off. As a result, the Ford Administration later blocked that proposed contract. I share this obscure bit of history because, in the last few weeks, the Appellate Court in CA blocked “validation” of the same contract, now decades later, that Westlands is still working to obtain. Brent intervened way back when. Westlands, now 40+ years later, is still trying to overcome what he put in motion. They just failed — again — to get a $400M give-away contract — same contract (updated with a side of massive taxpayer give-away greed).

In the 70s and 80s, Brent and many of us spent countless hours at the U.S. Capitol forcing votes and chasing Senators and House Members. Members would see Brent coming and knew he was reaching for their voting cards. Brent led the effort to “make ’em vote” over and over again. 

Brent and many of us involved in water resources policy struggled when the House Public Works Committee reported a massive biennial Corps Authorization bill that contained scores of provisions that shattered law, policy and procedure, AND cost billions. Drafting a press release became impossible — too many issues, scattered all across the U.S.  Brent came up with a way to address it. A press conference “lunch” took place. Brent cooked a small pig and in the press conference, sliced and served “SLICES OF PORK” to an assembled group of reporters. The “Profiles-in-Pork” campaign was launched. Every week, one provision was “profiled” in a new press release. Brent’s campaign delayed consideration of the bill. When it finally came to the floor, the press gallery was packed. The “pork-laden” bill withered and died. When it did, Brent remarked, “the pig killed it.”

Brent was my colleague.  He was my friend.

The world, in spite of all of today’s madness, is a far better place because Dr. Brent Blackwelder walked among us. 

~~D.W.

Note from the editor:

Do you want to share memories of Brent? If so, please comment below.

Do you have a photo of Brent that you are willing to provide for use in this article? If so, please contact keiko@friendsoftheriver.org.