KEARNS, Utah — It was a heated debate at the Kearns special session meeting on Friday, with the city council discussing the Community Clean Energy Program, a partnership between Rocky Mountain Power and Utah Renewable Communities.
The city initially voted "no" after residents voiced concerns about rising costs. Rocky Mountain customers would automatically be enrolled at $4 per month, unless they chose to opt out.
“It's a required opt-out rather than an opt-in program. A lot of community members have expressed a lot of support for renewable energy, but we are a lower-income, fixed-income community, and so $50 a year is important to people in the economy that we're living in,” said Kearns resident Miranda Giles.
The city wanted to rethink its decision, however, and sent out a survey asking for feedback. The mayor and council members re-visited the topic Friday evening, giving representatives from the program a chance to answer concerns.
However, most felt they shouldn’t have to pay at all, and Rocky Mountain Power should cover it.
“The fact that we have to ask for that from Rocky Mountain Power, and that they aren't automatically investing in this and haven't been investing in this for years, is pretty disgraceful, frankly,” Giles said. "We're here fighting for $50 a year, these scraps that really make a difference for people's lives, while they have shareholders taking home billions a year in profit.”
FOX 13 News reached out to Rocky Mountain Power to ask why there needs to be an additional charge for people who are already paying their power bills. We received the following statements:
"The Utah Community Clean Energy Program was established through legislation passed by the Utah Legislature in 2019 and is not a Rocky Mountain Power program. Under the law, individual cities and counties must choose to participate by adopting a local ordinance. Once a community passes that ordinance, customers in that community are automatically enrolled in the program, but each customer retains the ability to opt out. Customers who opt out will remain on their existing rate schedule, and the legislation is clear that the program may not result in any shift of costs or benefits to customers who do not participate. For customers who participate, the program enables the development of new renewable energy resources to meet participating communities’ annual electricity needs on a net basis and support local clean energy goals.
Rocky Mountain Power’s role is to work with participating communities and state regulators to help design and implement the program as required by the legislation, while continuing to provide safe, reliable electric service to all customers regardless of participation.”
"Under the legislation, only participating customers pay for the program, and those funds are used to develop new clean energy resources, cover program administration, and to address other related costs as the program matures. All costs are separately tracked and overseen through a regulatory process, so costs are not shifted to non-participating customers.”
The council ultimately voted “no” again during Friday’s meeting and will not participate in the program. This decision resulted in a round of applause from those in attendance.
“Our residents, they weren't ready for a program like this, they had some concerns,” said Mayor Jesse Valdez. "It was beyond whether we should opt in or opt out; it was more so about where do our community values lie."
