The Federal Government controls access, not necessarily constitutionally owns, more than 50% of land west of the Rocky mountains. To some extent this land was less desirable for a lack of water resources. Homesteading wasn’t feasible. Mining was found to be worthwhile in scattered sites. Grazing was worthwhile given large tracts available to compensate for sparse forage. Water would make this land more valuable.
Better use of the 700 million acres under Fed control would contribute to the GDP. Diverting excess solar and wind energy of the western states to desalination, could provide water resources to the arid western regions; and, allow better grid management. How we got the Fed land issue:
https://mises.org/blog/how-feds-got-all-western-land-and-why-its-problem
Say solar and wind and the left gets excited... and this is the problem.
Where’s the honest science? It already went out to lunch with no projected return time, with AGW a/k/a Anthropogenic Climate Change.