With the click of a mouse, Web users will soon be able to attend Western Caucus University, a new effort by Republican lawmakers from the West to teach the public about major issues in their region.

The university is actually a website that will be periodically updated with information about topics ranging from public land management to energy development.

"Western Caucus University is an effort to consolidate and coordinate our efforts to make the West something real to people here in Washington, not an abstraction or an idyllic playground," said Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), co-chairwoman of the Congressional Western Caucus, which advocates for domestic energy development and local control over federal lands, among other things. "Decisions made in Congress have consequences in the West most folks never see. It is our job to help them see."

One of the biggest issues facing Western constituents is whether the federal government should open public lands to oil and gas drilling and whether there is a role for federal officials to regulate that activity.

Through its Bureau of Land Management fracking rule, the Obama administration has proposed to place stricter standards on the controversial extraction process of hydraulic fracturing when it occurs on federal property (EnergyWire, March 7). Environmental groups have largely supported moves toward stronger federal regulation.

Republican lawmakers like Lummis and her fellow caucus members believe management of public lands is best left up to states and localities. They say federal regulations have effectively limited oil and gas drilling on those tracts, leading to missed economic opportunities.

When Western Caucus University launches its first unit -- a lesson on public lands that will include a one-page fact sheet and video on the subject -- there will be materials presented to show what energy development in the West would look like, if not for federal interference, said caucus spokeswoman Emily Hytha.

"It will show what the West misses out on," she said.

The caucus plans to eventually roll out a lesson devoted to development of oil and gas, among other energy resources, and how that affects Western constituents.