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Utah Renewable Communities wins Weber State sustainability award; Summit County board hears program timeline
Summary
Emily, secretary of the Utah Renewable Communities interlocal agency, told the Summit County Board of Health the cooperative won a Sustainability Collaboration Award and outlined the program's path through the Utah Public Service Commission and local adoption later in 2025 or early 2026.
Emily (agency secretary) told the Summit County Board of Health that Utah Renewable Communities, an interlocal cooperative of 19 communities that legally operates as the Community Renewable Energy Agency, won the Sustainability Collaboration Award at Weber State University's 2025 Intermountain Sustainability Summit.
"Legally, we are the community renewable energy agency, and more publicly, we go by Utah Renewable Communities," Emily said. She described the group's work since forming in 2021 to design a program that would allow Rocky Mountain Power customers in participating communities the option to receive clean energy through an opt‑out utility program.
Emily described the statutory foundation for the program: a 2019 state law originally called the Community Renewable Energy Act and renamed after 2024 legislative changes to the Community Clean Energy Act. She said communities formed the interlocal cooperative in 2021 and have negotiated with Rocky Mountain Power since then.
Recent procedural milestones include Rocky Mountain Power filing a resource solicitation framework to the Utah Public Service Commission and beginning to file the rest of the program application. Emily said the commission review could take three to six months and that, if the commission approves the solicitation and program, participating communities would then decide whether to adopt an ordinance to join the final approved program. "Assuming that the Public Service Commission does approve both soliciting resources and the rest of the program, there is then another step for communities to decide whether or not to participate in the final approved program, and that would be to adopt an ordinance," Emily said.
Emily described the internal governance of the interlocal agency (chair, vice chair, treasurer, secretary) and named elected officials and staff who chair and support subcommittees on program design, communications and low‑income plans. She said Mill Creek serves as an anchor location for the agency's hybrid meetings and that the agency expects a hearing and additional testimony filings from Rocky Mountain Power in the near term.
Board members thanked Emily for the update. Emily said the earliest local consideration of an ordinance would likely be later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on the Public Service Commission schedule and timing of Rocky Mountain Power filings.
Ending: The board heard the update as informational; no formal action was taken by the Summit County Board of Health on the Utah Renewable Communities program during the meeting.
