Governors Push Clean Energy
Jun 23 - Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Western governors on Tuesday endorsed a resolution that calls for developing 30,000 megawatts of clean energy -- enough energy to power 15 million to 30 million homes -- in the West by 2015.
"The resolution that was passed today, it is a worthy goal," Nevada
Gov. Kenny Guinn said Tuesday during a meeting of Western governors in Santa Fe,
N.M. "One of the most important things that will come out of this
resolution, I believe, is we will learn a great deal to communicate all across
this land.
"The average person thinks, why don't we just move to alternative fuels?
It sounds simple. It looks simple. But it's long term and it's costly. Thirty
thousand megawatts, from my standpoint, is extremely aggressive."
The resolution is nonbinding on the 19 states that are members of the Western
Governors Association.
"Obviously, in this democratic process, it's up to each state, it's up
to the governors and the legislatures and the private sector to take the steps
to implement those goals," said Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. "Many of our
states are already aggressively moving toward more renewable resources. We're
seeing wind farms, we're seeing biomass, we're seeing other types of energy,
which are renewable and are also sustainable."
The state of Utah and PacifiCorp, which operates in Utah as Utah Power and
supplies about 75 percent of the state's electricity needs, have implemented a
conservation campaign to urge residents to use less electricity during
peak-demand days.
The alert system, now in its fourth year, has saved as much as 100 megawatts
of electricity on "yellow" alert days -- when customers are advised to
set thermostats to 78 degrees or higher.
"In a sense, that's conserving energy and protecting our resources as
well as using renewables," Utah Gov. Olene Walker said.
The PowerForward effort joins another program to reduce electrical
consumption. The utility's "Cool Keeper" campaign, introduced last
year, attaches radio-controlled devices on central air conditioners, allowing
the air conditioners to be shut off for short periods during high demand.
Utah Power also offers its customer a chance to purchase "pollution-free
power," in which each customer's purchase of renewable electricity is
matched against electricity generated from wind sources.
The Utah Energy Office is implementing a statewide energy conservation
awareness program called Energy Wise.
"It's going to be more extensive than the PowerForward program,"
said Wendy Hansen, a spokeswoman for the office. "It will run year-
round."
In New Mexico, a solar commercial plant and additional tax incentives for
renewables are in the works, according to New Mexico's Richardson. Richardson
said his state is working with Japan on hydrogen fuel cells. New Mexico also is
moving toward implementation of meeting a 10 percent renewable-energy portfolio.
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com