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Statewide/ColoradoNampa Basin <br />Eric Kuhn, Dan Birch <br />Status Quo <br />• Look at how much technology has changed. From 1958 to present, how many <br />changes. This will happen again. Is the assumption that growth will continue with a <br />different energy economy safe. Movement of people may be different. Climate may <br />look different. Gasoline economy will change. <br />• Yampa - in 50 years in terms of water use not much different. People can live in <br />Yampa and work from home. <br />• Continued energy development, natural gas development will continue to move <br />northward. <br />• Uncertainty is in oil shale and secondary use of water for power. <br />• What do things look like with a Yampa Pumpback? <br />• Basic assumption that the next 50 years will look like the past 50 years. <br />• Much more competition on Colorado River in 50 years. <br />• Transfer of water from existing uses. <br />• The most the West Slope can hope for is to keep energy production down. <br />• Regions may not be able to have influence over what is a worldwide economic <br />force with respect to energy. <br />Alternative <br />• In 50 years the Colorado Basin will look like the Arkansas today, where any new <br />use is a change in use. <br />• Only so much we can talk about on supply side, we need to talk about it on the <br />demand side. <br />• We need to recognize we are in an era of change of uses not new development. <br />We need to prepare for this and talk about tradeoffs. <br />• Need to talk about land use planning - land use controls to promote high density <br />development (economy will also drive it). <br />• Do you want a pure market-driven approach; it will remove the resource from a <br />lower economic use to a higher economic use. <br />• What is the role of government in addressing the market? <br />• Let's not make the same mistake in Colorado that we made in the Arkansas, <br />Republican, and South Platte. Let's not allow overdevelopment. <br />• Overdevelopment - cannot meet obligations to downstream states. How much risk <br />are we willing to take? <br />4 <br />I:\INTERBASIN COMPACT COMMITTEEWISIONS FOR COLORADO WATER SUPPLY FUTURE\RESPONSES TO VISIONING AND MARCH MEETING\IBCC REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS.DOC