Introduction to Energy Development in the West

The story of North American “progress” is best characterized by the wave of human influence that originated in the East and spread westward. We first cleared eastern forests for European settlement and subsequently plowed midcontinent grasslands to produce food and fiber. Now the heavy footprint of energy development threatens to destroy the last of our large and intact western landscapes. People in the West are beginning to realize the social and economic tradeoffs associated with burgeoning development. Canadians enjoy the economic gains from exporting energy to U.S. markets but worry that declines in air and water quality accompanying extraction may be too high. Americans happily consume Canadian imports because buying oil from countries unfriendly to the United States poses a threat to national security. Energy development is a key to domestic prosperity in both countries, but poorly planned and largely unregulated, it comes at a high cost to nature.