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John Daley ReportingA key decision out of California last week may represent a monumental shift in where the West, and perhaps the nation, will get much of its power in the future.
The shift is being triggered by rising concerns about global warming.
The lights of downtown are powered by electricity from coal-burning power plants. In Utah, we get nearly all of our electricity that way.
California also gets plenty of their power from a coal plant in Utah, but now that state wants to dump coal for renewable energy sources.
People are increasingly linking a changing climate to pollution from cars and power plants.
And a group of Southern California cities won't be renewing their long-range contracts with Utah's Intermountain Power Agency or its plant in Delta.
The Sierra Club's Conservation Coordinator and IPA's General Manager don't agree much on the science, but both see a political tipping point.
Reed Searle, General Manager of Intermountain Power Agency, said "I read a lot about it. And for every scientist whose paper I read on one side, there's somebody on the other side that's got evidence that global warming is not true. So we don't have a clue. It's a political reality, and we have to deal with it."
Southern California gets much of its electricity from Intermountain Power's Delta plant, but this landmark move now puts it on an uncharted future course, based on renewables like wind and solar, instead of coal-burning power plants.
About 40% of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the #1 greenhouse gas, stem from the burning of fossil fuels for electricity--the vast majority coming from burning coal.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, or CEERT, reports that coal generates 54% of electricity in the US, and it is the single biggest air polluter. 95% of Utah's electric power comes from coal-fired plants. In California, it's more than one-fifth.
The coal industry is now seriously investigating clean coal technology, burning biomass--like switch grass and cornstalks--even pumping carbon dioxide underground.
Said Reed Searle of IPA, "Long term, I believe it's good news for coal."
Interstate Renewable Energy Council reports that renewable power makes up just 9% of U.S. generation. Excluding hydro, it makes up only 2%.
Researchers at Colorado's Nation Renewable Energy Lab see a bright future as more utilities and consumers invest in renewables.
Charles Kutscher, Chair of American Solar Energy Society, says "So as we deploy these technologies, we're seeing costs drop, we're seeing significant improvements and decreases in costs."
Power use is only projected to rise in the coming decades. So the race is on to begin developing these renewable resources, or to make coal burning cleaner, in order to meet that demand. And, California is gambling that it can be done.
