Western Governors' Meeting Wrap-up -- Leadership Elected

Denver -- Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the newly elected chairman of the Western Governors' Association, said environmental and energy issues will continue to command the most attention over the next year, but he called on Western state leaders to expand their focus beyond the region.

“As we consider the issues of the environment and energy that are so critical, we must do so with three main concerns at the forefront: affordability, energy security and emissions,” Huntsman said. “However, there is only so much we can do as a region, we must engage people outside of our nation’s borders to bring an international dimension to the WGA. The challenges we face in the West cannot be solved without a global approach.”

Gov. Huntsman was elected WGA chairman during the governors' annual meeting and Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana was elected vice chairman. The issues of energy, water, wildlife protection and climate change dominated the three days of discussion and actions taken in Jackson.

On Tuesday, the governors agreed to work in concert to deliver recommendations to the incoming administration on a federal energy policy. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, WGA's chairman this past year, raised the issue of incentives and how they could produce technology-neutral results.

“There is an immense amount of money sitting on the sidelines that is waiting to be invested. We need to figure out how to use government action to activate the private sector in a way that modifies the behavior of the economy but doesn’t choose one technology over another,“ Freudenthal said.

Joining the governors in a panel discussion on energy were Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE; Jeff Sterba, CEO of PNM Resources and chairman of the Edison Electric Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute; and Erik Peterson, Senior Vice President of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Immelt said the Western governors are uniquely positioned to influence the national debate on energy.

“The people who are going to drive the discussion on clean energy are governors – the policy will be shaped here,” Immelt said.

Managing water resources in the arid West will become ever more challenging as development pressures increase, populations continue to rise and climate change warms the region. In a plenary session moderated by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday, the governors heard from experts who discussed the need to seek out new sources of water, to increase efficiency in the use of water and to implement water recycling programs.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, WGA's chairman this past year, noted that it often takes decades to put water storage plans into effect by constructing new reservoirs. The last project built in Wyoming took 13 years to obtain federal approval, he said.

“We need an expansion of the allowable purposes and needs that can be met with federal appropriations for water development projects,” he said. “We're no longer building storage projects for agricultural purposes alone.”

Freudenthal also raised concerns about how Western water law fundamentally lacks incentives for conservation and efficiency.

“This issue is more conceptual, but it is very real,” he said. “You want to talk about water conservation, but the whole premise of our water law is utilization – beneficial use. We have to have a strategy that says to users that if they conserve, somehow we have recognized that conservation may modify the scope and dimension of their underlying property right that is so valuable.”

Brad Udall, director of the Western Water Assessment at the University of Colorado, spoke on the bleak outlook for water supplies in the region.

“Water has long been a zero sum game in the West,” Udall said. “Climate change introduces the possibility that it will become a negative sum game.”

Udall suggested that traditional water storage solutions like reservoirs will play a role in the future of water management in the West, but added that new solutions will also be necessary. These might include broader implementation of gray water recycling systems, increased efficiency in municipal water use and a new focus on water when planning power plants and other energy generating facilities as they are often heavy water users.

Duane Smith of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board presented a report developed by the Western States Water Council that offers recommendations on water policy and growth in the West, the need for additional water infrastructure, the anticipated impacts of climate change on water supplies and strategies for protecting aquatic species under the Endangered Species Act.

Several governors offered comments on their states’ struggles with water supply and management. Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska discussed Nebraska’s efforts to manage conflicts over water and the role of local governments in water planning. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter described Idaho’s efforts to build additional water infrastructure and to more closely examine existing aquifers in the state. Gov. Bill Ritter discussed Colorado’s reliance on water and its active drought planning efforts.

Moderator Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona said she created a new Growth Cabinet comprised of the secretaries of agencies that address growth and development in her state. Arizona now requires many developers to show proven access to long-term water resources before they can move forward on development projects.

Udall said the best way to capture new sources of water appears to be through desalination plants and in developing systems to reuse water.

“The fundamental thing is that there is a water cycle and there’s a limited amount out there,” he said.

Information about the Annual Meeting and a link to resolutions and documents can be found at: www.westgov.org.

The Western Governors’ Association is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 19 states and three U.S.-Flag islands in the Pacific. Through their Association, the Western governors identify and address key policy and governance issues in natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and public management.

# # # # #