Nevada's Plan To Develop The Desert

A recently introduced bill "would ease the way for hundreds of miles of water pipelines across federal land and carve out 87,000 acres of public holdings — the equivalent of nearly three San Franciscos — to sell for private development around the county's scattered little communities... The proposal to sell off federal land here is the latest in a series of congressional acts, launched in 1998, that are helping fuel southern Nevada's explosive expansion. The approach Nevada officials are pushing is being eyed as a model in other Western states where the federal government controls huge swaths of land."