Utah has everything to gain from embracing the clean energy economy. Unfortunately, during the last legislative session, the Utah Legislature took a dramatic leap backwards towards an energy strategy centered on keeping Utah’s coal-fired power plants operating indefinitely. Utah legislators recently described this strategy as “going long on coal” for the foreseeable future by directing state utility regulators to keep coal plants open, even if costs to Utahns rise. Making matters worse, Utah’s largest utility, Rocky Mountain Power, is now scaling back on building new clean energy resources. This is the opposite of the “all-of-the-above” approach that Utah claims to support.
Taken together, this is a reckless bet that the energy strategies of the past will work in the future. But clinging to the past carries substantial risk. The largest risk, of course, is a changing climate, which is already driving extreme heat, extreme weather, drought, wildfires and other challenges in our communities. But the economic risks are also substantial: Utah is falling behind other states and businesses that are capitalizing on the falling costs of clean energy to build their future. This puts us at a major competitive disadvantage. Utah will miss out on new investment in our state and in the clean energy supplies that we need to meet our growing energy demands.
We propose a different path for Utah’s energy policy that embraces the opportunities of the future.
A truly clean electricity supply
Moving our electricity supply to zero-emissions resources by 2035 is essential to creating a climate-safe energy system. We can get there reliably and affordably by embracing a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage, transmission and a range of emerging zero-emissions technologies…