Energy policy a federal case

Deseret Morning News editorial
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:46 a.m. MDT
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As the latest signatory to the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, Utah has pledged to help fight global warming. The partnership, which includes California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and British Columbia, has established goals for reducing emissions, participating in a multistate greenhouse-gas registry and providing market-based incentives for companies that comply.

The compact is an outgrowth of frustration with the federal government, which has failed to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. Similar initiatives are close to fruition in Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.

If the federal government has, indeed, failed to lead out on this issue, there is merit to the states prodding it to do so. But any such initiative must be entered with eyes wide open. The United States is a long way from weaning its dependence on carbon-based energy sources, both in terms of national policy and private business decisions. Absent some solution on nuclear waste storage and/or reprocessing and requirements for expensive pollution controls on coal-burning power plants, there will be little change in western energy production and use.

Frankly, it rings somewhat hollow for California to initiate the pact when it has all but surrendered new electrical production to states such as Utah, as its own environmental policies have made it far more difficult to construct and operate such facilities. Recently, a number of California cities interested in alternative energy have said they won't renew their contracts with Intermountain Power Agency when the agreements expire in 20 years. What does this portend for IPP and other power producers in terms of investment capital to improve pollution controls on existing power plants or to build cleaner-coal plants?

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Perhaps more importantly, what will state lawmakers do with this pledge? Coal mining and the production of electricity are the economic lifelines of a number of rural communities in Utah. Where does this pledge leave them, if fully realized?

If the science on global warming is accurate, the planet cannot continue to burn fossil fuels as its primary source of energy. But certain federal policy issues must be addressed before the West can transition from coal to cleaner-burning coal technologies, let alone embrace civilian nuclear power or alternative fuel sources.

Again, the states should take steps to pressure the federal government to begin to address global warming from a policy-making perspective. But it also must be acknowledged that policy shifts of this nature could take years for the federal government to address, and perhaps longer for bottom-line driven energy companies to embrace.

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