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Local leaders press state to actively market Energy Research Center, cite baseload power shortfall
Summary
Emery County officials urged state agencies to take ownership of the Energy Research Center and to resolve baseload power constraints that local leaders say prevent landing large energy users. Commissioner and private‑sector speakers said the state’s energy policy and incentives lag competing states.
Local officials and business leaders told the Emery County Economic Development Board the state must more actively promote the Emery County Energy Research Center and resolve electricity policy barriers that limit large energy users from locating in Utah.
Brock Johansen, CEO of Emery Telcom, said the center is state‑owned and criticized what he characterized as insufficient state promotion and support. "It's not Emery County's anymore. It's the State's," Johansen said, urging the state to advertise and recruit tenants for the facility rather than leaving the work to the county.
Johansen and other speakers also described a structural limit on available baseload power in Utah and said the lack of a clear state directive to the regulated utility (Pacific Corp/Rocky Mountain Power) constrains recruitment of major industrial and energy projects. "We need baseload power," Johansen said, adding that Pacific Corp will act if regulators make cost recovery clear.
Presenters and county officials also raised the competitive threat posed by other states that offer large up‑front incentive packages. Board members asked EDCUtah and GOEO to pass feedback to the legislature and to the state’s executive leadership so the county’s energy and infrastructure advantages — including land, transmission and available water rights — are better leveraged.
EDCUtah and GOEO representatives acknowledged the concerns, said they will relay the feedback internally and offered to continue coordinating with the county on recruitment strategy and incentive conversations. The meeting did not produce a formal policy change; commissioners said they would continue pressing state officials and legislative contacts.
