the five states of the southern Intermountain West — Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico — are prospering and growing so rapidly that they may soon be tagged the "New American heartland" to reflect how their economies and presidential votes impact the entire country. Already Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix/Tucson and Albuquerque are centers of regions expanding rapidly, forming highly urbanized chains of development. The trend is so pronounced, the regions are called "megapolitan," or "Mountain Megas" in a new report by Robert Lang and Mark Muro for the Brookings Institution. And Washington's help is needed to deal with water — historically the West's most contentious issue. The Colorado River, noted Huntsman, "is not getting larger" and the interstate compact dividing its flow, ratified by the region's states and Congress, "dates to 1922, the time of the Treaty of Versailles." The stakes, Huntsman insists, are momentous: The West is "headed toward disastrous results in the absence of decisive steps" to deal with water shortages triggered by population growth, climate change and regional drought. Huntsman would start with dramatic conservation and recycling efforts.

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