Utah Leaders Hinder Photo voltaic Efforts Regardless of Want for Extra Vitality — ProPublica

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox believes his state wants extra energy — much more. By some estimates, Utah would require as a lot electrical energy within the subsequent 5 years because it generated all final century, to satisfy the calls for of a rising inhabitants in addition to chase information facilities and AI builders to gas its economic system.

To that finish, Cox introduced Operation Gigawatt final 12 months, declaring the state would double vitality manufacturing within the subsequent decade. Though the announcement was brief on particulars, Cox, a Republican, promised his administration would take an “any of the above” strategy, which goals to broaden all sources of vitality manufacturing.

Regardless of that objective, the Utah Legislature’s Republican supermajority, with Cox’s acquiescence, has taken a tough flip in opposition to solar energy — which has been coming on-line sooner than some other supply in Utah and accounts for two-thirds of the brand new tasks ready to hook up with the state’s energy grid.

Cox signed a pair of payments handed this 12 months that can make it harder and costly to develop and produce photo voltaic vitality in Utah by ending photo voltaic growth tax credit and imposing a hefty new tax on photo voltaic era. A 3rd invoice aimed toward limiting photo voltaic growth on farmland narrowly missed the deadline for passage however is predicted to return subsequent 12 months.

Whereas Operation Gigawatt emphasizes nuclear and geothermal as Cox’s most well-liked sources, the legislative broadside, and Cox’s willingness to associate with it, caught many within the photo voltaic business off guard. The three payments, of their unique type, might have introduced photo voltaic growth to a halt if not for photo voltaic business lobbyists negotiating a decrease tax charge and defending current tasks in addition to these below development from the brunt of the impression.

“It took each greenback of political capital from all the key photo voltaic builders simply to get to one thing tolerable, in order that something they’ve below growth will get constructed they usually can transfer on to greener pastures,” mentioned one business insider, indicating that photo voltaic builders will seemingly pursue tasks in additional politically pleasant states. ProPublica spoke with three business insiders — vitality builders and lobbyists — all of whom requested to stay nameless for worry of antagonizing lawmakers who, subsequent month, will once more contemplate laws affecting the business.

The Utah Legislature’s pivot away from photo voltaic mirrors President Donald Trump taking a extra hostile strategy to the business than his predecessor. Trump has ordered the phaseout of profitable federal tax incentives for photo voltaic and different renewable vitality, which expanded below the Biden administration. The lack of federal incentives is an even bigger hit to photo voltaic firms than the reductions to Utah’s tax incentives, business insiders acknowledged. The administration has additionally canceled giant wind and photo voltaic tasks, which Trump has lamented as “the rip-off of the century.” He described photo voltaic as “farmer killing.” 

But Cox criticized the Trump administration’s resolution to kill an enormous photo voltaic venture in neighboring Nevada. Often known as a governor who advocates for a return to extra civil political discourse, Cox doesn’t typically choose fights. However he didn’t pull punches with the resolution to halt the Esmeralda 7 venture deliberate on 62,300 acres of federal land. The central Nevada venture was anticipated to provide 6.2 gigawatts of energy — sufficient to produce practically eight instances the variety of households in Las Vegas. (Though the Trump administration canceled the environmental overview of the joint venture proposed by a number of builders, it has the potential to maneuver ahead as particular person tasks.)

“That is how we lose the AI/vitality arms race with China,” Cox wrote on X when information surfaced of the venture’s cancellation. “Our nation wants an all-of-the-above strategy to vitality (like Utah).”

However he didn’t tackle his personal Legislature, no less than publicly.

Lots of Utah’s Republican legislators have been skeptical of photo voltaic for years, criticizing its footprint on the panorama and viewing it as an unreliable vitality supply, whereas lamenting the retirement of coal-generated energy crops. The economies of a number of rural counties depend on mining coal. However lawmakers’ skepticism hadn’t coalesced into profitable anti-solar laws — till this 12 months. When Utah lawmakers convened at first of 2025, they took benefit of the political second to go after photo voltaic.

“It is a sentiment sweeping by means of purple states, and it’s very disconcerting and really disturbing,” mentioned Steve Useful, Utah director of The Western Approach, which describes itself as a conservative group advocating for an all-of-the-above strategy to vitality growth.

The shift in sentiment in opposition to photo voltaic vitality has created a tough local weather for an all-of-the-above strategy. Photo voltaic tasks will be constructed rapidly on Utah’s huge, sun-drenched land, whereas nuclear is an extended sport with tasks anticipated to take a decade or extra to return on-line below optimistic eventualities. 

Cox usually helps photo voltaic, “in the proper locations,” particularly when the captured vitality will be saved in giant batteries for distribution on cloudy days and after the solar goes down.

Cox mentioned that as a substitute of vetoing the anti-solar payments, he spent his political capital to average the laws’s impression. “I believe you’ll see the place our fingerprints had been,” he advised ProPublica. He didn’t element particular adjustments for which he advocated however mentioned the payments’ earlier iterations would have “been rather a lot worse.”

“We are going to proceed to see photo voltaic in Utah.”

Cox’s any-of-the-above strategy to vitality era attracts from a decades-old Republican push equally titled “all the above.” The GOP coverage’s intention was as a lot about preserving and increasing reliance on fossil fuels (certainly, the phrase might have been coined by petroleum lobbyists) because it was turning to cleaner vitality sources similar to photo voltaic, wind and geothermal.

As governor of a coal-producing state, Cox hasn’t proven curiosity in decreasing reliance on such legacy fuels. However as he slowly rolls out Operation Gigawatt, his focus has been on geothermal and nuclear energy. Final month, he introduced plans for a producing hub for small modular reactors within the northern Utah neighborhood of Brigham Metropolis, which he hopes will develop into a nuclear provide chain for Utah and past. And on a latest commerce mission to New Zealand, he signed an settlement to collaborate with the nation on geothermal vitality growth.

In the meantime, the payments Cox signed into regulation already seem like slowing photo voltaic growth in Utah. Since Might, when the legal guidelines took impact, 51 deliberate photo voltaic tasks withdrew their purposes to hook up with the state’s grid — representing greater than 1 / 4 of all tasks in Utah’s transmission connection queue. Though tasks drop out for a lot of causes, some business insiders theorize the anti-solar laws may very well be at play.

Caught within the political squeeze over energy are Utah clients, who’re footing increased electrical energy payments. Earlier this 12 months, the state’s utility, Rocky Mountain Energy, requested regulators to approve a 30% hike to fund elevated gas and wholesale vitality prices, in addition to upgrades to the grid. In response to outrage from lawmakers, the utility knocked the request all the way down to 18%. Regulators ultimately awarded the utility a 4.7% enhance — a choice the utility promptly appealed to the state Supreme Courtroom.

Juliet Carlisle, a College of Utah political science professor specializing in environmental coverage, mentioned the brand new photo voltaic tax might sign to giant photo voltaic builders that Utah vitality coverage is “turning into extra unpredictable,” prompting them to construct elsewhere. This, in flip, might undermine Cox’s efforts to rapidly double Utah’s electrical energy provide. 

Operation Gigwatt “depends on speedy deployment throughout a number of vitality sources, together with renewables,” she mentioned. “If renewable progress slows — particularly utility-scale photo voltaic, which is at the moment the fastest-deploying useful resource — the state might face challenges assembly demand progress timelines.”

Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, had sponsored laws to finish the photo voltaic business’s state tax credit for a number of legislative periods, however this was the primary time the proposal succeeded.

Christofferson agrees Utah is dealing with unprecedented demand for energy, and he helps Cox’s any-of-the-above strategy. However he doesn’t suppose photo voltaic deserves the benefits of tax credit. Regardless of enhancing battery know-how, he nonetheless considers it an intermittent supply and thinks overreliance on it could work in opposition to Utah’s vitality objectives.

In testimony on his invoice, Christofferson mentioned he believed the tax incentives had served their goal of getting a brand new business off the bottom — 16% of Utah’s energy era now comes from photo voltaic, rating it sixteenth within the nation for photo voltaic capability. 

Christofferson’s invoice was the least regarding to the business, largely as a result of it negotiated a prolonged wind-down of the subsidies. Initially it could have ended the tax credit score after Jan. 1, 2032. However after negotiations with the photo voltaic business, he prolonged the deadline to 2035.

The invoice handed the Home, however when it reached the Senate flooring, Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Nice Grove, moved the tip of the incentives to 2028. He advised ProPublica he believes photo voltaic is already established and not wants the subsidy. Christofferson tried to defend his compromise however in the end voted with the legislative majority.

Not like Christofferson’s invoice, which wasn’t born of an antipathy for renewable vitality, Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, made it clear in public statements and behind closed doorways to business lobbyists that the objective of his invoice was to make photo voltaic pay.

The invoice imposes a tax on all photo voltaic manufacturing. The proceeds will considerably enhance the state’s endangered species fund, which Utah paradoxically makes use of to battle federal efforts to record threatened animals for defense. Snider solid his invoice as pro-environment, arguing the cash might additionally go to habitat safety.

As initially written, the invoice would have taxed not solely future tasks, but in addition these already producing energy and, extra worrisome for the business, tasks below development or in growth with financing in place. The margins on such tasks are skinny, and the unanticipated tax might kill tasks already within the works, one photo voltaic business govt testified.

“Corporations like ours are being successfully punished for investing within the state,” testified one other.

The pushback drew assaults from Snider, who accused photo voltaic firms of hypocrisy on the atmosphere.

Business lobbyists who spoke to ProPublica mentioned Snider wasn’t as prepared to barter as Christofferson. Nevertheless, they succeeded in decreasing the tax charge on future developments and negotiated a smaller, flat charge for current tasks.

“Everybody form of determined collectively to save lots of the prevailing tasks and let it go for future tasks,” mentioned one lobbyist.

Snider advised ProPublica, “My objective was by no means to run anyone out of enterprise. If we wished to make it extra heavy-handed, we might have. Utah is a conservative state, and I might have had all of the help.”

Snider mentioned, just like the governor, he favors an any-of-the-above strategy to vitality era and doesn’t “wish to take down any specific business or supply.” However he believes utility-scale photo voltaic farms must pay to mitigate their impression on the atmosphere. He likened his invoice to federal regulation that requires royalties from oil and fuel firms for use for conservation. He hopes federal lawmakers will use his invoice as a mannequin for federal laws that may apply to photo voltaic tasks nationwide.

“This business wants to present again to the atmosphere that they declare very closely they’re going to shield,” he mentioned. “I do consider there’s a tinge of hypocrisy to this complete motion. You may’t say you’re good for the atmosphere and never offset your impacts.”

One of many extra emotional debates over photo voltaic is ready to return subsequent 12 months, after a invoice that may finish tax incentives for photo voltaic growth on agricultural land didn’t get a vote within the closing minutes of this 12 months’s session. Sponsored by Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George, the invoice has been fast-tracked within the subsequent session, which begins in January.

Jack mentioned he was pushed to behave by ranchers who had been involved that photo voltaic firms had been outbidding them for land they’d been leasing to graze cows. Photo voltaic firms pay considerably increased charges than ranchers can. His invoice initially had a slew of land use restrictions — similar to mandating the space between tasks and residential property and creeks, minimal lot sizes and 4-mile “inexperienced zones” between tasks — that photo voltaic lobbyists mentioned would have strangled their business. After negotiating with photo voltaic builders, Jack eradicated the land use restrictions whereas preserving provisions to ban tax incentives for photo voltaic farms on non-public agricultural land and to create requirements for decommissioning tasks.

Many in rural Utah recoil at rows of black panels disrupting the panorama and worry photo voltaic farms will displace the ranching and farming lifestyle. Certainly, some puzzled whether or not Cox, who grew up on a farm in central Utah, would have been as crucial of Trump scuttling a 62,300-acre photo voltaic farm in his personal state as he was of the Nevada venture’s cancellation.

Peter Greathouse, a rancher in western Utah’s Millard County, mentioned he’s anxious about photo voltaic farms taking over grazing land in his county. “Twelve and a half % is privately owned, and plenty of that’s not farmable. So when you usher in these photo voltaic locations that begin to eat up the farmland, it might’t get replaced,” he mentioned.

Utah is shedding about 500,000 acres of agricultural land each 10 years, most of it to housing. A report by The Western Approach estimated photo voltaic farms use 0.1% of the US’ complete land mass. That quantity is predicted to develop to 0.46% by 2050 — a tiny fraction of what’s utilized by agriculture. Of the land managed by the Utah Belief Lands Administration, lower than 3,000 of the two.9 million acres dedicated to grazing have been transformed to photo voltaic farms.

Different ranchers advised ProPublica they’ve been capable of keep on their land and protect their lifestyle by leasing to photo voltaic. Landon Kesler’s household, which raises cattle for workforce roping competitions, has leased land to photo voltaic for greater than a decade. The income has allowed the household to nearly double its land holdings, offering extra room to ranch, Kesler mentioned.

“I’m going to be fairly trustworthy, it’s absurd,” Kesler mentioned of efforts to restrict photo voltaic on agricultural land. “Photo voltaic very immediately helped us tie up different property for use for cattle and ranching. It didn’t run us out; it really helped our agricultural enterprise thrive.”

Photo voltaic lobbyists and executives have been working to bolster the business’s picture with lawmakers forward of the subsequent legislative session. They’re arguing photo voltaic is an efficient neighbor.

“We don’t use water, we don’t want sidewalks, we don’t create noise and we don’t create mild,” mentioned Amanda Smith, vp of exterior affairs for AES, which has one photo voltaic venture working in Utah and a second in growth. “So we simply form of sit on the market and produce vitality.” 

Photo voltaic pays non-public landowners in Utah $17 million a 12 months to lease their land. And, extra essential, photo voltaic builders argue, it’s crucial to powering information facilities the state is working to draw.

“We’re desperate to be a part of a diversified electrical energy portfolio, and we expect we carry plenty of values that can profit communities, hold charges low and steady, and assist hold the lights on,” Rikki Seguin, govt director of Interwest Vitality Alliance, a western commerce group that advocates for utility-scale renewable vitality tasks, advised an interim committee of lawmakers this summer season. 

The message didn’t get a optimistic reception from some lawmakers on the committee. Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, who represents three rural Utah counties and was amongst photo voltaic’s critics final session, mentioned the largest criticism he hears from constituents is about “that ugly photo voltaic facility” in his district.

“Why, Rep. Albrecht, did you enable that photo voltaic discipline to be constructed? It’s black. It seems to be just like the Useless Sea while you drive by it,” Albrecht mentioned.