In Utah, state officials are fielding various combinations of energy proposals, a list that includes solar and geothermal installations and an energy storage project ...Scores of projects - some speculative, others well-funded and a few quirky - have surfaced with energy companies eager to take advantage of loan guarantees and tax breaks being promoted by President Barack Obama.

In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, the groups -- including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance -- allege agencies that mapped the 6,000 miles of energy-corridor rights of way failed to analyze renewable-source locations and numerous federal and local land-use plans.

Mountain West Energy Resources from the Salt Lake Valley is requesting a zone change from agricultural to industrial on Antelope Road in the Escalante Desert for 158 acres in its first phase of a 32- turbine wind farm. MWER owner, Mike Tyler, said the upstart company is vying to be the first wind producer in Utah to keep the power in the Rocky Mountain Power grid system. This system buys and sells power to neighboring states, such as Montana and Wyoming.

Taking easterly winds in a new direction could provide South Weber and Layton residents near the mouth of Weber Canyon with an alternative energy source. That is, if zoning issues can be remedied, costs met, regulations drafted and not-in-my-backyard battles kept to a minimum. Layton Mayor Steve Curtis is interested in his city pursuing wind turbines as an alternative energy source. ...But before officials in any community turn their face to the wind in search of an alternative energy source, an expert associated with the work done on the small wind farm in Spanish Fork has some advice.

Reversing its own earlier decision, the Utah Public Service Commission (the "Commission") has concluded that a wind power project must obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity ("CPCN") for a 90-mile transmission line proposed in connection with a wind farm to be built in southwest Utah.

A bill that sets a goal to have 20 percent of the state's energy come from renewable sources by 2025, passed favorably out of a Senate committee Monday. ...Under the legislation, energy sources that do not emit hydrocarbons or produce greenhouse gases could count toward the 20 percent renewable standard. Nuclear energy would be included in that definition.

The most environmentally sensitive and economical ways to reduce power consumption and improve air quality undoubtedly involve conservation and better efficiency. But few experts maintain these tools by themselves will fill the gap between demand and generating capacity, or between global warming and clean air. Among often cited alternatives to conventional power stations like coal and nuclear-fired plants are those running on the nonpolluting, renewable sources of solar, geothermal and wind power. All have advantages and drawbacks. ..."if we were to build a coal-fueled project and then there would be an extensive carbon tax of one kind or another, either imposed by the state or federal government, that would make the project no longer 'least-cost, least-risk,'" he said. "Least-cost, least-risk" is a standard required by utility regulators in the states PacifiCorp serves. If a plant is built that is considered outside the range of reasonableness, "we're subject to regulatory disallowance," he said. PacifiCorp could find itself docked by regulators. "It kind of pushes us toward natural gas projects and wind power."

Utah could be on the verge of a wind energy breakthrough, but it’s lacking one vital resource to make it a reality — political willpower. “If we could convince Gov. (Jon) Huntsman that renewables were as important as Real soccer, we could probably have wind turbines up in a matter of months,” said San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams. “I just don’t think that elected and public officials are educated enough to really understand what’s going on in the industry.”

Officials in Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, Riverside and Anaheim have told the Intermountain Power Agency in Utah that they're not renewing their contracts for coal-fired power with the company. They join Los Angeles, which already rejected plans to renew its contract with Intermountain.

SPANISH FORK — An embattled wind farm development set to begin construction next year in Spanish Fork may serve as a microcosm for the future of wind energy in Utah and across the nation. The farm, a project of Utah-based Wasatch Wind, will be the state's first commercial wind farm. It already has been delayed after citizens in Spanish Fork requested that it be moved farther from homes, to a site at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. Finding investors was difficult, and the looming expiration date on a state tax credit, on which the project depends, promises an arduous battle still ahead as supporters work to get the credit restored. Like the wind power industry as a whole, the Wasatch Wind project has weathered the early storm and is poised to move forward but remains shrouded in lingering questions