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Agree: Renewable Energy As A Means Of Reducing

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In the absence of federal action on climate change in the United States, local communities have taken on the responsibility of reducing their greenhouse emissions. How did a politically conservative, coal-dependent state such as Utah achieve such a commitment?

We recently published a study in the journal Sustainability access is free exploring how it began with Salt Lake City, Park City and Moab, the first Utah cities to enact percent net-renewable electricity resolutions in and The biggest hurdle was convincing Rocky Mountain Power, their existing fossil-fuel-dependent utility monopoly, to develop and provide the communities with sufficient clean, renewable electricity resources — not renewable energy credits or supplies from existing sources — and to retire fossil-fuel assets.

The other significant challenge was Reducng buy-in from all city residents and businesses to accept percent net-renewable energy, especially given that the costs for the transition were unknown.

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Would citizens voluntarily adopt renewable Rexucing under these circumstances, or would the cities have to mandate participation? We found that the cities collaborated with each other along with Summit County, which eventually passed its own resolutioneach playing different roles to bring Rocky Mountain Power to the table. Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski initiated talks with the utility, and with the help of State Representative Stephen Handy, negotiations resulted in landmark legislation, the Community Renewable Energy Act CREA ofwhich authorized the utility to procure renewable electricity resources and create a renewable electricity bulk-purchase program for participating cities. Rocky Mountain Power required that the additional costs associated Renewable Energy As A Means Of Reducing procuring the renewable electricity would not increase rates for customers outside the program.

Consequently, CREA stipulated that any new costs and benefits associated with renewable electricity procurement would be designated only to the cities receiving it.

CREA also set a deadline for other Utah cities to join the bulk purchase program, and this resulted in 23 Utah cities and counties in total coming forward to take the renewable electricity pledge. Park City had found that automatic enrollment in its own WaterSmart conservation program Renrwable in very high participation rates among its citizens with few choosing to opt out. Thus, the automatic enrollment provision was a critical component of CREA. Academic research suggests that people typically accept defaults as a social norm, so the expectation is that few Utahns may opt out of the renewable electricity program.

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We argue that CREA may be a model for other cities and communities across the nation implementing percent net-renewable electricity resolutions. In our study, officials of the small town of Moab in southern Utah expressed concerns about how these added costs could affect its town budget and residents of modest means. Many cities in the coalition seek ways to offset implementation costs through third-party funding and grants as costs become better understood to minimize their impact on lower-income customers. Consequently, cities participating in CREA are grappling with these risks. Indeed, a key economic benefit of renewable electricity is its price stability because the "fuel" for wind and solar is free and not susceptible to the price volatility of the boom and bust cycles associated with fossil fuels.

By contrast, fossil-fuel power plants face strong headwinds in the form of reduced subsidies and the prospect of carbon taxes. While the U.

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The forthcoming Biden administration already has signaled that it plans to cut Meanw subsidies for fossil fuels and will re-engage the U. In a world that is increasingly facing up to carbon emissions, fossil fuels are a risky and expensive bet. Recent polling shows that Utahns want a stronger transition to cleaner energy and air.]