Revisiting the Winning of the West

Abstract

In 1996, the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies (LAW Fund), a nonprofit environmental lawand policy center based in Boulder, Colorado, released How the West Can Win: A Blueprint for a Clean and Affordable Energy Future. The blueprint found that rapid growth in the West would lead to another round of fossil fuel–fired power plants and the associated environmental impacts unless policy makers changed course toward a more sustainable energy future. The study provided a set of strategies that lawmakers, regulators, and other stakeholders could use to help implement such a course change. It is concluded that the blueprint’s recommendations are even more salient than they were 5 years ago. The article leads off with an overview of changes in the electric industry over the past 5 years in the interior West and concludes with a review of the executive summary of the LAW Fund’s 1996 report, the policy directives of which remain valid today.