7 Lessons from the Literature

• Title: Colorado’s Interbasin Compact Negotiations: Development of an Institutional Framework - Lessons from the Literature
• Date: 12/17/2004
• Author: Russel George, Frank McNulty, Peter Nichols, Eric Hecox
• IBCC - Doc Type: Program Planning, Budget & Contracts

Revised: 7/26/2007

Transaction costs are lowered because state and federal interests are
o
weighed concurrently.

The inclusion of the federa l government as an active participant means
o
that any determination reached will be comprehensive.
?

Problems

Negotiation such a compact adds another dimension of complexity.
o

In the west federal involvement can doom a process from the beginning.
o

There is a ri sk that federal interests will drive the process. However, the
o
flip - side is any agreement limits federal power by binding federal agencies
to the terms of the compact.
?

Federal - interstate compact commissions are not created as wholly autonomous
entities, bu t rather as agencies that act for, and only with, the concurrence of their
members.
?

Despite the shortfalls of federal - interstate water compacts, contemporary scholars
see it as the most appropriate approach.

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