1) It is impossible to project to 2050. Its like someone in 1904 trying to project 1950. By extrapolating growth "trends" of the past 10 years into ad infinitum, they would probably think that Austria-Hungary would be the greatest power in the Balkans, Argentina would be a world power, and the North's population continue to grow against the South's, until there was virtually nobody left and the South was just a farmland with 5% of the population!
But if you really must, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Canada's vast oil supply, which after it dwindles in other areas, we will have to drill there. That will increase Canada's population and thus the economic size of states like MT, SD, and MN.
By that time, oil won't matter.
Hopefully there will be something cheaper, because the Canadian oil is a b*tch to get out and the cost of oil would be significantly higher than it is now. But without development of
cheaper alternative fuels (we dont even know if its feasible to get an alternative fuel as cheap as oil), it may become necessary.
