Proposed energy resource development in the arid western United States raises a number of potential problems for an environment that does not have a great deal of resiliency. Projected population increases associated with large-scale development activities may go beyond the capacity of small, isolated rural communities to absorb them; and constraints on western agricultural and industrial development—for example, demands for water already exceeding the supply available—also limit energy development. The authors of this wide-ranging book first evaluate western energy resources, then...