The mountain West: a 'megapolitan' surprise.

Tens of millions of Americans tethered to our coasts may be caught short as the Democratic National Convention opens in Denver two weeks from now.

They've likely heard of the Denver Broncos, but what else is out there in those empty spaces except ranches, sagebrush and high mountains?

Well, brace yourself. This region of the ghost towns and legendary lone cowboy is now registering America's fastest population growth--and expects 11 million more people by 2040.

And indeed, the five states of the southern intermountain West--Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico--are prospering and growing so quickly that they may soon be tagged the "New American heartland" to reflect how their economies and presidential votes (several are swing states) 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.

Two Western governors I spoke with last week--Colorado's Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and Utah's Jon Huntsman, a Republican--didn't use the "megapolitan" word much. Symbolically, it's a stretch in a region that still thinks of itself as the domain of rugged individualists riding the range.

But from the communities stretched along Utah's Wasatch Range to Arizona's Sun Corridor, there's a single overriding issue for the new West, said Huntsman: "It's growth--how we focus on quality growth, quality neighborhoods, and the kinds of communities to leave as legacies to the next generation."

The barriers are huge: Overwhelmingly, the modern West has developed with scattered-site, auto-dependent communities. It's permitted walls around subdivisions and created many more acres of parking than efficiently compact and walkable communities. But the light rail boom now under way in the Denver, Salt Lake City and Phoenix-Tucson regions marks a new opening--"'urban shock therapy for suburban-dominated regions," Brookings suggests.

And there's a new energy agenda for a region that grew up on extractive industries. Ritter can hardly contain his enthusiasm for a ''New Energy Economy" based on green values and renewables. Colorado, he claims, has the nation's top R&D sector in renewable energy, rooted in major universities and laboratories. He points to plans of such firms as Vestas (a Danish company) to build America's biggest wind turbine manufacturing plant in Colorado--"great green jobs, the approach of myself and T. Boone Pickens."

Huntsman hits a similar chord, asserting Utah has "the most ambitious energy conservation goal--20 percent by 2015--of practically any state in America."

But there's a range of issues, pinpointed by Brookings and underscored by the governors, on which the fast-urbanizing West is missing a critical partner: an engaged federal government that assists and stimulates local innovations but doesn't try to micromanage.

A top example is transportation. There's only a two-lane highway connecting Las Vegas and Phoenix. Freight mils need improvement. And high-speed rail, based on European models, could link cities up to 300 or even 500 miles apart, deflecting traffic from overtaxed airports. Federal planning and construction aid could be critical--along with rules changes to even the playing field so that transit projects can compete fairly with road building.

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.

So how's Washington to help? Yes, with some. key funding, the Brookings analysts suggest. But also as a partner in crafting creative, collaborative regionwide water agreements. And Washington is best positioned to sponsor basic science research, providing improved data and models beyond the scope of any single state, bridging today's spectrum of climate-water-energy challenges.

Finally, there's the issue of the immigrants--including tens of thousands undocumented--flowing into these Western states (even in predominantly white, predominantly Mormon Utah in recent years). Why no national "political courage" to set clear rules, asks Huntsman, citing the "travesty" of "people living in the shadows of society, waking up fearful for themselves and their families." And why, asks Ritter, is there no "serious border enforcement" or a guest worker program for agricultural workers?

The irony is that after three decades of "devolution" of power from Washington, after the West's transformation from rural roots into a dominant "megapolitan" form, this boisterous, self-confident region of America still needs a strong federal partner after all.

Neal Peirce's e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.

[c] 2008, The Washington Post Writers Group

The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the National League of Cities or Nation "s Cities Weekly.