For decades, resource economists and policy wonks have touted the value of water markets to solve water scarcity problems. Water markets have special appeal in the Western United States where the prior appropriation doctrine favors historic, low-value agricultural water rights over far more...
View PDF
The chief federal agencies that manage our public lands, and many other federal agencies that make decisions affecting our natural resources, must generally comply with the National and Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare an environmental impact...
Download the report here.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS REPORT
Despite the obvious relationship between where and how people live and the water they need to do so, our institutions have been slow to encourage decision makers to think about land and water use together and to engage in a dialogue with...
This book grows out of a very simple idea — that citizens have the right to engage their government to enforce environmental laws that are supposed to protect their communities, the land, and the environment from adverse impacts of surface coal mining. In order for citizens to exercise that...
This report provides a snapshot of Colorado River Basin leaders' perspectives on the policy decisions and challenges facing the basin. Its findings are based on confidential interviews conducted with 29 decision makers and other experts, including current and former employees of local, state,...
This report assesses the performance of the fossil fuel industry in five energy-producing states in the Rocky Mountain West—Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—in the context of the energy surge of themid-2000s and the recent recession. The 2003-2008 natural gas surge and slump is then...
In Fall 2010, the Colorado Foundation for Water Education widens its scope to explore conflicts between both land and water-based recreational users. Inspired by the 2009 legislative attempt to clarify commercial boating rights on Colorado's streams, this issue of Headwaters reports on that...
Utah's Pursuit of Oil Shale and Tar Sands
In the report, "Fossil Foolishness: Utah's Pursuit of Tar Sands and Oil Shale," WRA examines what potential commercial development of oil shale and tar sands would mean for Utah. Our research focuses on the likely impacts of developing these...
U.S. EPA leaders told agency employees yesterday to watch out for disparate environmental effects on the poor, racial minorities and American Indians, releasing a guidance document with advice on promoting "environmental justice" throughout the rulemaking process.
EPA Administrator Lisa...
A new study by Headwaters Economics compares how Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—five states with vast traditional but also significant clean energy resources—are taking advantage of clean energy opportunities to create green jobs.
Read more about how each state’s...
