SALT LAKE CITY — It takes courage for a staunch environmentalist to stand before a group of electricity producers and essentially tell them to steer away from traditional energy sources.

But that's exactly what Chris Thomas, policy director for the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, did on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems.

Thomas urged UAMPS members to use alternative energy sources, including wind and compressed air energy storage.

UAMPS is a governmental agency that provides comprehensive wholesale electric energy, on a nonprofit basis, to 53 community-owned power systems in Utah and seven other nearby states.

Addressing the audience of about 80 people, Thomas implored the members to consider the attributes of developing alternative sources for the long-term benefits of its customers as well as the environment. He specifically noted that while some Utahns support the development of nuclear energy, the expense and accompanying waste issues make it one of the least desirable options.

"Nuclear has some significant downsides that have to be looked at very carefully," he said. "There are more options (available) than people think there are."
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Thomas said adding solar power generation to an existing coal-fired plant is another possibility, as well as increasing the efficient use of energy.

The suggestions resonated well with UAMPS general manager Douglas Hunter, who said the message from HEAL Utah was clear: "Planning is everything."

"If we were to ever embark on (power plant development in the future), we would spend a lot of time planning before (moving forward)," he said.

Thomas offered compressed air energy storage, or CAES, as an option for a "clean" source of baseload power that would allow electricity producers to store excess capacity in underground salt caverns for use when needed.

"What CAES is nice for … is when you've got an intermittent resource like wind, then you can use a CAES plant to store that energy … and then to liberate and dispatch it at times when it makes sense to (use it)," he said. "It takes a dispatchable resource and makes it one you can control."

In 2008, UAMPS launched the "Smart Energy Initiative," a comprehensive energy management plan that emphasizes energy conservation and wise energy development, according to the UAMPS Web site.

Hunter said the suggestions made by HEAL Utah could prove very compatible with the ideas in the initiative as long as they are economically viable.

How the economy will develop in the near future will likely be determined, in part, by the energy production, according to Jeff Thredgold, a Zions Bank economic consultant and the event's other featured speaker.

Thredgold said energy policy in Utah and nationwide will be tied to the perceived impact on the environment.

"Whether you believe in climate change 'science' or not, we have moved collectively toward the desire for greater efficiency, toward better buildings (and) better insulated homes, clean burn technology in coal and alternatives," he said.

"Anything we can do to minimize our dependence on (foreign oil) is a positive thing."