Proposing the Utah Energy Abundance Act

Operation Gigawatt is a promising idea. What does it look like?

ChatGPT’s depiction of the Utah Energy Abundance Act.

Utah’s recent legislative priorities have focused on energy abundance. Last year, the state passed several bills related to energy policy. What these bills got right was their energy abundance mindset. That is, they started from the right place–a belief that prosperity is energy-intensive.

The most recent and public version of this is Governor Cox’s Operation Gigawatt goal. Operation Gigawatt targets doubling Utah’s energy production in 10 years. This goal sets the right destination, but what does it mean in practice? Governor Cox can’t do this himself, he’ll need the legislature to lay the groundwork and industry to rise up to the opportunity.

To that end, here are the two major buckets of my proposed Utah Energy Abundance Act of 2025:

1. Open and enable energy markets with permitting and interconnection reform.

2. Lay the groundwork for energy innovation in nuclear, geothermal, and more.

Massive potential exists for state policymakers that embrace these reforms.

Open and enable markets

The core problem in energy policy is that it is too hard to build. Solving this is key to realizing a future of energy abundance.

Opening and enabling energy markets means:

1. Establish a framework for industrial energy parks where generators can serve loads over some size separate from the rest of the grid and as a separate franchise.

2. Direct the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to give guidance on Plantwide Applicability Limits (PAL) under the Clean Air Act.

3. Direct the Office of Energy Development to study and recommend ways to streamline permitting and interconnection for energy technologies within Utah.

4. Establish interstate agreements to ease permitting for energy projects and transmission.

5. Begin lobbying for the US Congress to expedite interconnection reform via the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

6. Begin lobbying for the US Congress to improve poor federal permitting policies.

One of the clearest examples of these barriers to progress is in transmission. It takes 10 years to build a line. Yet 7 of those 10 years are years of paperwork. Building the lines themselves only takes 3 years of actual construction time. Every energy development and technology is affected by delays associated with extensive paperwork.

Lay the groundwork for energy innovation

Laying the groundwork for energy innovation in Utah means:

1. Pre-approving areas for energy development, including nuclear and critical mineral development.

2. Continue the Utah Office of Energy Development’s work on strategic nuclear pathways and direct OED to develop a set of rules that the state would use to regulate nuclear energy if the authority was devolved to the states.

3. Making full-expensing for energy-related investments permanent.

4. Requiring that localities use automated permitting programs for residential energy technologies like solar, batteries, and others.

5. Begin lobbying for the federal reform of nuclear regulation, like reforming the use of linear no-threshold risk models and the “as low as reasonably achievable” standard.

Prosperity is energy-intensive

Many concerns about energy needs exist, and they are well-placed, at least to some degree. Human agency over energy is fundamental to a prosperous life. The development of new technologies, like artificial intelligence, will depend on innovators' ability to find the energy they need. Our continued technological prowess as a country depends on our ability to provide energy for industry.

Yet the fears have been largely negative—focused on the problem rather than the extensive network of would-be entrepreneurs and innovators working to solve society’s energy problems. Yes, an era of load growth and expanding energy demands is approaching. But even greater resources are locked away under burdensome paperwork and poor permitting practices that empower bureaucrats and anti-energy idealogues.

Operation Gigawatt and the continued work of Utah’s legislators promise to enable a world of energy abundance. They stem from a belief in our ability to solve resource dilemmas and meet future energy challenges.