This caught my attention: PacifiCorp’s plans to retire coal fired power plants by 2032 (“Utah is abandoning coal power because it just doesn’t pencil”, The Tribune). This is a decade earlier than planned and comes alongside similar plans to stop operating most coal fired plants in Wyoming by 2030. Power companies’ mission is to provide reliable energy at lowest prices. They wouldn’t accelerate transition plans if the economics didn’t justify the switch. In plain words, clean energy is abundant, renewable and has become less expensive than carbon polluting fuels.
Though noteworthy on its own, there is work to do that goes along with this transition. As highlighted earlier in this op-ed, “Switch to clean energy and bring $15 billion to Utah’s coal communities”, (Feb. 7, The Tribune), there is as much as $15 billion available through 2026 for impacted Utah communities to build new clean energy infrastructure and bring good jobs to our state. Utah leaders need to embrace the future as well as the present, and take immediate action, ensuring Utah of its fair share of federal funding.
Additionally, we need the complement of permitting reform which our members of Congress on both sides of the aisle recognize needs streamlining. We’ve got to speed up the pace with which we build new clean energy projects. It takes an average of 4.5 years for federal agencies to complete environmental impact statements for major energy projects. These are important environmental assessments, but they can move faster. I call on our congressional House Reps. John Curtis, Chris Stewart, Blake Moore, and Burgess Owens (members of the Conservative Climate Caucus) to take this important opportunity to legislate a bipartisan bill that quickly gets to our president’s desk; making our common home safer, cleaner, and healthier, sooner than we thought!
David Kam, Salt Lake City
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/Inw6xCj
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