“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” — Darth Vader
Imagine, if you will, a 1910 session of the Michigan Legislature in which lawmakers were keen to preserve the generations-old reliance on horse-drawn transportation. Because it seemed to them that the old ways worked well and were unfairly threatened by these unproven, newfangled motorcars being turned out by the upstart Ford Motor Company.
In such an alternative history, Michaganders might have taken actions similar to the drive in the 2024 session of the Utah Legislature to push back on moves to create, and profit from, low- and no-carbon energy sources and instead cling to another generation of coal-fired power generation.
Even in this Twilight Zone, it is difficult to picture Henry Ford supplanting his dream of motorcars for the masses and instead turning his innovative manufacturing processes to making horseshoes and buggy whips.
In 2024 Utah, the horseshoes and buggy whips are King Coal, the motorcars are new sources of energy and Ford Motor is Rocky Mountain Power and its parent company, PacifiCorp.
Except Rocky Mountain Power is not so confident in its ability to create a better future. That’s bad news, for Utah and for the planet.
New laws shift costs and risks from utilities to ratepayers
That company’s leadership, taking shelter behind coal-friendly laws passed by the Utah Legislature and signed by Gov. Spencer Cox, has formally abandoned plans to accelerate the retirement of its two giant coal-fired power plants in Utah, plans that had included serious shifts to renewable sources of energy.
function onSignUp() { const token = grecaptcha.getResponse(); if (!token) { alert("Please verify the reCAPTCHA!"); } else { axios .post( "https://8c0ug47jei.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/dev/newsletter/checkCaptcha", { token, env: "PROD", } ) .then(({ data: { message } }) => { console.log(message); if (message === "Human
