ABSTRACT
During the 1970’s, the combined forces of a rapidly increasing demand for energy and the desire on the part of the United States to achieve greater national self-sufficiency in meeting energy needs resulted in accelerating pressures to develop natural resources such as coal, oil shale, tar sands, and geothermal power sources. Since many of these important resources are located in what are basically rural areas of the Rocky Mountains and Northern Plains states, their development has had and will continue to have dramatic consequences for local communities in this region and for their inhabitants. This chapter will review some of these consequences.
