© 2024 KPCW

KPCW
Spencer F. Eccles Broadcast Center
PO Box 1372 | 460 Swede Alley
Park City | UT | 84060
Office: (435) 649-9004 | Studio: (435) 655-8255

Music & Artist Inquiries: music@kpcw.org
News Tips & Press Releases: news@kpcw.org
Volunteer Opportunities
General Inquiries: info@kpcw.org
Listen Like a Local Park City & Heber City Summit & Wasatch counties, Utah
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

PC Council Pushes Rocky Mountain Power To Get To Renewable Energy Faster

Melissa Allison
Citizens show up at PC council meeting in support of net-zero goal.

Along with Salt Lake City, Park City is working with Rocky Mountain Power to reach their collective goals of being net-zero – meaning that all of the city’s municipal carbon emissions are mitigated or balanced with renewable energy or purchasing energy credits.

In an effort to minimize future negative impact – council member Tim Henney said the council barred two major sources of renewable energy.

“The discussion which the public didn’t hear last night was during work session about going 100 percent renewables and what that means," Henney said. "And we have excluded hydro – large hydro – and we have excluded nuclear and we want to focus on wind and solar and that sort of creates an organizing principle and a path forward for us to help Rocky Mountain shift away from coal to renewables.”

Park City doesn’t want to wait 30 years for Rocky Mountain Power to wean itself off of coal and are encouraging  the utility company to take a leap now.

“They know that coal is not their future," Henney said. "And they know that 30 years from now all of their coal plants will have been decommissioned and they will have to replace them with alternate forms and we’re telling them from Salt Lake, Park City and Summit County that we want that to be renewables. We want them to replace as much as they can with renewables and we don’t want them to take 30 years to do it.”

Both municipalities say they’re willing to help Rocky Mountain Power with legislation to help them  condense their timeline from 30 years down to five or 10.

Henney said the city wants to take the high road to net-zero and that means they won’t buy energy credits to offset the amount of carbon emissions.

“We don’t want to be using those energy credits quite honestly," Henney said. "We think that’s an inauthentic way of achieving this. We’d like to be generating enough of our own renewable energy that we can then offset against the carbon that we emit. That’s the ideal way to get to net-zero.”

Henney expects the city will begin to crack down or financially penalize energy hogs. He said the city will do what it can to level the playing field when it comes to those who have heated driveways and hot tubs compared to those who don’t.

“We’re looking at regulation and code and zone to be able to help us do that," Henney said. "That’s from the planning department – that’s their side of it. Ann Laurent is working with Bruce Erickson into how we can use our land management code more effectively and that’s where we’re headed. We’re going to be looking at, ‘How do we offset or eliminate heat tape, heated driveways?’”

Though it’s a big goal that many are skeptical about, Henney smiled confidently.

“The good news is when we hear from Luke and we hear from Ann and we hear from Andy and Jack who have been the principles talking with Rocky Mount Power – we are making significant and surprising progress – so that’s the good news – I believe – very hopeful.”