Utah is one of the sunniest states in the country, however, environmental experts are worried state officials are squandering opportunities to capitalize on this vast renewable energy resource in favor of expanding the state’s fossil fuels industry.
In July, online news outlet Politico reported the Sierra Club discovered that Gov. Gary Herbert copied nearly verbatim talking points from a fossil fuel industry lobbyist in a letter the governor sent to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Herbert was requesting an EPA exemption of safeguards that control the state’s ground-level ozone pollution.
Following the news, some environmental groups said Utah’s “pro-polluter” policy was hurting its ability to transition to a greener energy sector.
“If you think about the transitions that will be made and are currently being made across the country toward clean energy, Utah is missing the boat by not getting on board with these and by supporting short-term gains for a really small number of polluting industries,” said Ashley Soltysiak, director of Utah Sierra Club.
The news about Herbert’s willingness to co-opt industry talking points was revealed inside a much larger reporting effort focused on Scott Pruitt, the EPA’s embattled former director who resigned in July amid a dizzying array of ethics scandals.
Solar Bright Spots Few, Far Between
According to the Solar Foundation, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing the use of solar and solar-compatible technologies worldwide, in 2017, Utah ranked 12th out of 51 states and U.S. territories in solar jobs, with 6,170 statewide positions.
The state saw 40-percent solar job growth in 2017 as it has added 1,762 new solar jobs since 2016.
By comparison, Utah’s neighbors Nevada and Arizona were 10th with 6,564 solar jobs and 6th with 8,381 jobs, respectively. Colorado was 9th with 6,789 jobs in 2017.
Lindsay Beebe, organizing representative with the Beyond Coal campaign at Sierra Club said a number of recent policy moves put Utah in a dis advantaged position.
For example, Utah is among a handful of states that has a voluntary renewable portfolio standard, a regulation that requires utilities to produce a certain amount of electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
In 2017, Utah’s Legislature passed a number of initiatives that cast a shadow on the state’s efforts toward a greener energy economy. Among these a new transportation bill actually hiked registration fees on electric and hybrid vehicles. And Utah’s Public Service Commission ended its net-metering program in favor of a transitional rate and as-yet-to-be-determined rooftop solar tariff.
Coal is Not King
In the meantime, coal output in Utah has been on a steady decline, the Utah Geological Survey shows. Coal production in Utah has plummeted almost 40 percent from 25,299 short tons in 2002 to 14,326 short tons in 2017. The report analyzed 18 mines in Carbon, Kane, Emery, and Sevier counties.
“Coal is not an economically viable, nor sustainable, energy resource,” Beebe said. “As fossil fuel markets boom and bust, so too does the welfare of Utah families. Elected leaders should stop looking back to the 1950s for their energy policies, and instead embrace the vast opportunity of the renewable energy technological revolution.”
Recently, the Sierra Club commissioned Utah-based energy consulting firm Energy Strategies to conduct an independent analysis of PacifiCorp, one of the West’s leading utilities, which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah. The company operates coal plants in Huntington and Castle Dale.
An independent analysis of PacifiCorp’s coal-burning power plants describes how the utility’s portfolio of coal-fired generation poses a “significant” financial risk to its customers in the future.
The report showed that wind and solar power, along with options for purchasing energy on the open market, are in many cases cheaper than or competitive with coal.
PacifiCorp’s 2017 Integrated Resource Plan and Energy Vision 2020 plans include $3 billion in wind investments in Wyoming, but provides no similar renewable energy investments in Utah, she said.
“Utah is missing out, particularly the extraction and boom-and-bust communities in rural Utah that have been historically reliant of the fossil fuel industry,” Beebe said.
For instance, the report said that 12 coal units run at a higher cost than solar energy over their anticipated lives. The report estimated PacifiCorp’s potential savings from displacing coal with solar energy sits at a whopping $700 million.
Some Counties Take the Lead
In recent years, some Utah counties have seen a surge in solar and geothermal development. Beaver County produces just shy of 750 megawatts of renewable energy. On June 14, the U.S. Department of Energy said Utah will receive $140 million to build a laboratory for developing enhanced geothermal systems in Beaver County. Beaver County Commissioner Mark Whitney said as a result Utah will eventually see significant growth in renewable energy.
“I think you have seen the state has already stepped up its game on renewable energy,” Whitney said in a phone interview.
While some counties in the state remain dependent on coal and fossil fuels for their economy, Whitney said Beaver County was able to build a stronger economy based on renewables.
“I don’t harbor any bad feelings (toward coal), but here, in Beaver County, we capitalized on renewable energy,” Whitney said.
A Natural Resources Defense Council report earlier this year said that Utah ranked ninth nationwide in the portion of power generated by solar installations. The data showed that the state is still catching up with big players like California and Nevada in the renewable arena, but that the large-scale solar developments in Utah produced only 5 percent of all the electricity generated in the state in 2017.
With plunging revenues, the long-term forecast for the coal industry in Utah remains an open question, Beebe said.
“What we do know, without equivocation, is that coal, in many cases, is now uneconomic when compared to clean energy sources like wind and solar. Clean energy has reached cost parity in the market, and that does not even take into account the substantial and costly external impacts of the fossil fuel industry on our public health and climate,” Beebe said.
More Fossil Fuel Development on Horizon
In July, the Bureau of Land Management announced plans to offer 109 oil and gas leases, consisting of 203,321 acres of federal public land, including 158,944 acres of public lands in the heart of Utah’s San Rafael Desert and the Dirty Devil region.
The public land lease process for oil and gas development has been around for a long time, however, under Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Department of Interior has drastically cut back on public involvement. Under new guidelines, the agency allows for a 15-day public scoping period. The BLM didn’t provide an opportunity for the public to review or comment on the draft environmental assessments and reduced the public protest period to 10 days, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance reported.
In a press release, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said that at its September lease sale, BLM will auction off parcels overlapping and adjacent to Highway 24—the main access route to Goblin Valley State Park—as well as parcels less than two miles from the Horseshoe Canyon extension of Canyonlands National Park.
Environmentalists worry that the state’s push for development will only exacerbate its existing problems with air quality. Utah’s Uintah Basin presents a specific challenge. In recent years, concentrations of wintertime ozone in the Uintah Basin have reached or exceeded the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, raising concerns about the health and environmental impacts of elevated ozone levels, according to Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Breathing ozone can trigger a variety of symptoms, including coughing, throat irritation, and chest pain.
“We essentially violated federal health standards for that area which has serious implications for the health of anyone who’s living in that vicinity,” Soltysiak said.
Increased oil and gas development in the basin has already led to environmental issues regarding air quality, water quality, and management of drilling wastes, according to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Cash Trumps Public Health
Soltysiak said Utah’s economic development often takes precedence over public health.
“Utah has certainly been very much pro-growth, pro-development sort of at any cost. We see that as a value that’s highlighted by our state legislators, our congressional delegation. There has been a lack of prioritization for public health … and so, it’s certainly has been a problem historically for the state,” Soltysiak said.
Environmentalists worry that the long-term effect of the policy that prioritizes fossil fuels over green jobs could drive away potential residents and have ripple effects across Utah’s economy in the future.
“Utah has a ton to offer in terms of outdoor recreation opportunities, we have beautiful dark sky areas, it’s one of the most incredibly scenic states, but if our lands, our water, and our air are so polluted that people don’t want to make it their home here, that’s going to have serious economic impact in the long-term,” Soltysiak said.
The Yin and Yang of Utah’s Energy Destiny
Yin and Yang FINAL