Tomorrow morning, Tuesday February 28 at 10:00 am, the Utah House of Representatives will vote on a resolution that discourages renewable energy development in Utah.
HJR 25 - Joint Resolution Highlighting the Hazards of Net-Zero Energy (Ken Ivory) calls on Utah to oppose “net-zero policies and incentives.” This resolution sends the signal that developing our renewable energy resources would harm our economy and our energy security.
PLEASE TEXT OR EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY, ASKING THEM TO VOTE NO. You can look up your district and contact information for your legislators here.
I testified against the resolution in committee today (it passed anyway). You can watch my testimony here. My points were:
The resolution conflicts with existing Utah law, which allows municipalities to opt-in to buy clean power from Rocky Mountain Power
There are multiple meanings of "net-zero" and the resolution does not define the term.
Some private companies such as Microsoft are shifting to procuring 24-7 clean electricity, where they match supply and demand in real time.
The term "net-zero" is coming to mean that you remove as much carbon from the air as you emit. That is a bedrock conservative principle of accountability that the state ought to support.
Additional points from Utah Clean Energy:
The resolution prioritizes developing fossil fuels over renewable energy resources.
Renewable energy resources can diversify our energy resource mix, addressing the risks of climate change and improving energy security in the U.S. This resolution would be a step backward and discourage renewable energy development in Utah.
The resolution suggests that Utah will not benefit from shifting to a world with lower emissions forms of electricity generation and bringing online new energy storage resources. However, Utah can thrive in the new energy economy and to take advantage of new investments, private and public, in solar, wind, geothermal energy storage, energy efficiency, and clean hydrogen.
Many states, including conservative states, are reaping the benefits of new investments in clean energy technologies.
States across the U.S. have seen an influx of new investments in manufacturing for renewable energy, batteries, electric vehicles. Those states include Georgia, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Nevada. See this Guardian article.
Georgia, for example, will see $2.5 billion from QCells for solar manufacturing operations. Not all these investments will be appropriate for our state, but there is opportunity out there that we should be seizing along with our fellow conservative states.
Other bills
Many of the bills we are working on will be coming up for votes in the House and Senate this week. Take a look at the 2023 legislative tracker for all the details.
If your legislators weren't on the relevant committees before, then NOW is the time to contact them.
Climate Innovation in a Red State with Governor Cox
If you missed this event today, you can watch it here.
