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Sen. Curtis Meets With Utah’s Business Community To Champion The State’s Clean Energy Future

Photo Courtesy American Energy American Jobs

Because of its favorable business environment and natural beauty, Utah’s population has risen by 1.68% over the last decade, making it the fastest-growing state in America according to Scioto Analysis. This demographic shift has led to an era of prosperity, but it has also created a corresponding increase in electricity demand. Luckily, Utah’s leaders in both the public and private sectors have anticipated this challenge and are developing a strategy to ensure the availability of a reliable power supply. Their “all-of-the-above” approach to energy policy will utilize a combination of traditional power sources and their renewable counterparts in order to maximize the amount of electricity generated. At last month’s Powering Utah’s Economy event, U.S. Senator John Curtis met with prominent business leaders at AES’ Salt Lake City office to discuss how to best implement this plan, and each participant left the conference with a renewed sense of optimism about the state’s clean energy future. 

The convening was attended by executives from Utah’s most significant organizations in the energy, utilities, and economic development sectors. Some of the brands that were represented include:

  • AES Utah
  • NextEra Energy
  • Fluence 
  • Rocky Mountain Power
  • Gardner Policy Institute 
  • The Salt Lake Chamber
  • EDCUtah

Photo Courtesy American Energy American Jobs

Throughout their conversations, Utah’s clean energy community identified several potential barriers to the growth of their industry. The group sought to devise solutions to problems such as the fact that the federal government’s tariffs could increase prices for the component parts of energy projects and the potential for climate change to strain the state’s electrical grid. In addition, everyone agreed that the most urgent issue was the construction delays caused by the antiquated permitting process. Senator Curtis went so far as to tell Fox 13 that permitting reform was his “single biggest priority.”

At the end of the event, there was a unified confidence in Utah’s ability to overcome these challenges because their priorities aligned with the federal government’s goal of achieving energy dominance. A recent X post by Sen. Curtis was illustrative of this sentiment: “The question isn’t renewables or non-renewables. It’s not fossil fuels or no fossil fuels. The real question is this: Will it be the United States, or will it be someone else? This Administration gets it—America must lead the world in affordable, reliable, and clean energy.” 

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