Lawmakers Looking at Cost vs. Benefit of Energy Development

May 13, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

Public Lands Restrictions, Carbon Emimssion Regulations Singled Out

(KCPW News) Legislators concerned that high fuel prices could hamper the state's rapid economic growth are spending the interim session studying energy. Representative Roger Barrus is the co-chairman of the Natural Resources Interim Committee.

"Energy is such an important issue today," Barrus says. "And quite frankly, our federal government - through our federal energy policy - is not progressing quickly enough in order to take care of the nation's energy needs. And it's just time - over time actually - that we take a look at our national energy resources and determine what we are going to be able to do to develop those."

Barrus has asked energy consultant Wesley Smith to talk to lawmakers May 21 about the Copenhagen Resource Center's method of assessing energy resources using a cost-benefit analysis. The Davis County Republican asked Smith to specifically address whether restricted development of some of Utah's energy resources on protected land is a benefit or cost to residents of the state. And, he wants Smith to discuss whether implementing the technology needed to limit carbon emissions at power plants will increase utility bills. A recent Utah Priorities survey conducted by the Utah Foundation listed energy as voters' top priority this year. The foundation's executive director, Steve Kroes, says compared to other states, Utah's energy is relatively cheap.

"One of the great things about living in Utah is that we have had some great cost advantages being here," Kroes says. "We have lower priced oil, generally, than the rest of the country. But we definitely have lower priced electricity and lower-priced natural gas. And it's partly because we're a producer of those things."

Kroes says the state's natural gas prices are among the lowest in the nation, and electricity prices are low because of the state's coal resources. The state has great potential for developing alternative energy sources, he says. In the future, Kroes says a nuclear power plant could utilize Utah's abundant uranium deposits, and promising research could reach the state's untapped oil shale beds.

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