Jacques Leslie

San Francisco, Woodstock

Contributing Opinion Writer at Los Angeles Times

LATimes contributing opinion writer. Named "Enemy of the Week" by American Spectator. Wrote Deep Water (on dams) & The Mark (Vietnam war correspondent memoir).

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Articles

Leslie: Klamath basin’s comeback scuttled by Trump’s slash-and-burn cuts

3 weeks ago | pressdemocrat.com | Jacques Leslie

The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and Native tribes.
DOGE and Trump quash a Klamath River basin comeback

4 weeks ago | thebrunswicknews.com | Jacques Leslie

The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and Native tribes.
Commentary: DOGE and Trump quash a Klamath River basin comeback

4 weeks ago | miamiherald.com | Jacques Leslie

The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and Native tribes.
Contributor: DOGE and Trump quash a Klamath River basin comeback

1 month ago | latimes.com | Jacques Leslie

The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty, and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments, nonprofits and Native tribes.
A Story About Salmon That Almost Had a Happy Ending

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Jacques Leslie |Jordan Gale

Completion of the world's largest dam removal project - which demolished four Klamath River hydroelectric dams on both sides of the California-Oregon border - has been celebrated as a monumental achievement, signaling the emerging political power of Native American tribes and the river-protection movement. True enough.
In a major reversal, the World Bank is backing mega dams

Jan 14, 2025 | climatechangenews.com | Jacques Leslie

This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360. After a decade of declining to finance large hydroelectric dams, the World Bank is getting back into the business in a big way. Throughout the last half of the 20th century, the bank was the world’s leading supporter of big hydro. But over the last two decades, it followed a zigzag pattern as dam supporters and critics inside the institution took turns determining hydro policy.
World Bank Reverses Course to Back Mega Dams

Jan 14, 2025 | undark.org | Jacques Leslie

After a decade of mostly declining to finance large hydroelectric dams, the World Bank is getting back into the business in a big way. Throughout the last half of the 20th century, the bank was the world’s leading supporter of big hydro. But over the last two decades, it followed a zigzag pattern as dam supporters and critics inside the institution took turns determining hydro policy.
In a Major Reversal, the World Bank Is Backing Mega Dams

Dec 19, 2024 | e360.yale.edu | Jacques Leslie

Despite continued opposition, the World Bank has approved the first of five big dam projects expected to get its support in the coming months. Climate change has upped the need for renewable energy, but the environmental and social costs of building such massive projects remain. After a decade of declining to finance large hydroelectric dams, the World Bank is getting back into the business in a big way.
How climate change, batting last, will defeat the capitalism that created it

Nov 30, 2023 | callawayclimateinsights.com | Jacques Leslie |David Callaway

By Jacques Leslie(Jacques Leslie is a Los Angeles Times contributing opinion writer and the author of Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for its “elegant, beautiful prose.”)DATELINE (Callaway Climate Insights) — We’ve heard these stories so often they’ve lost their power to amaze.
The Growing Danger of Dams

Sep 26, 2023 | time.com | Jacques Leslie

The collapse of two Libyan dams earlier this month is likely to herald a grim new dam era, in which the decline of dam building accelerates and deadly dam failures become more and more common. The consequences could be catastrophic for millions of people.