Wyoming sees potential to release water owned by the federal government instead of cutting back use by irrigators, industry and municipalities to meet downstream obligations.
Legislators hoping to build a Wyoming energy complex could more easily divert Green River water under a bill U.S. Sen. John Barrasso advanced last week.
Wyoming biologists seek to determine how drought, energy development, habitat competition and migration barriers may play a role in pronghorn herds that are about half their size as they were 20 years ago.