Take Action to Influence Utah's State Energy Plan!

Energy and Innovation Plan Public Input

Thank you for facilitating a public engagement process to inform the future of Utah’s energy development. This is a vitally important sector that impacts almost every facet of our lives from the economy to public health and the environment. I join a large coalition of community and state organizations calling on the Cox Administration and the Utah Office of Energy Development to include a comprehensive analysis of economic, social, and environmental impacts from current and planned energy development in the updated Energy Plan. Excluding this analysis would be a contradiction of existing state policy and legislative action, including 2018’s HCR 007, the current state energy policy, and the recent Gardner Institute, “Utah Roadmap: Positive Solutions on Climate Change and Clean Air” that was funded by the State Legislature in 2019. The updated energy plan will set the baseline for energy development in the state over the next decade, and will determine if Utah works towards a socially and environmentally responsible future or continues our legacy of energy sacrifice zones and dependence on the boom and bust cycle of fossil fuel development. It is the stated resolution of the State of Utah to “prioritize our understanding and use of sound science to address causes of a changing climate and support innovation and environmental stewardship in order to realize positive solutions,” according to the 2018 Concurrent Resolution on Environmental And Economic Stewardship. The existing Energy Action Plan does not consider the connection between energy development and the causes of our changing climate. In fact, it does not include any analysis of the state energy policy within the context of environmental or public health impact whatsoever. Furthermore the State Energy Policy States, “Utah will allow market forces to drive prudent use of energy resources, although incentives and other methods may be used to ensure the state's optimal development and use of energy resources in the short- and long-term;” however, current favoritism and long-term subsidies to fossil fuel industry have interrupted prevailing market forces to allow renewable energy development to be artificially depressed in this state. This results in an imbalanced energy mix, where approximately 86% of Utah’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels and only 14% comes from renewable sources, despite Utah’s relative wealth of solar, wind, and geothermal resources. Without a basic accounting of these subsidies and their disproportionate impact on different energy resources, the state cannot accurately assess the efficacy of these measures in achieving “optimal development”. The state’s favoritism for the fossil fuel industry has placed renewable energy development on the back burner and has led to harmful health, climate, and economic impacts. For example, in Utah, deaths attributed to air pollution have been estimated as high as 8000 annually with a lofty $3.3 billion price tag. At the same time, local air pollution disproportionately damages the health and well-being of low-income communities and the Black, Brown, Pacific islander, Indigenous, and communities of color in the state . The“Utah Roadmap: Positive Solutions on climate change and air quality” represents the best available, most recent, and most locally tailored science about the opportunities to address climate change and air quality issues. Any state energy plan should, in following state legislative mandate, account and include this report as guidance, and take actions that minimize the threats to the state’s air quality and public health.