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…
