On Thursday, Sept. 19, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox stopped in the Carbon Corridor to meet with local leaders and to hear and discuss what challenges rural residents may be facing. This included discussions on housing, energy, workforce challenges and water.
The first topic Cox discussed was the energy crisis in Utah, and how the Governor’s Office is looking to fix it. Cox stated there aren’t enough electrons in the country to power what we’re trying to do. He cited the Artificial Intelligence boom, with the mass influx of data centers to power AI using an extreme amount of power. One proposed center in Utah would take 1.4 gigawatts to power, he compared this to the entire state of Wyoming, which only consumes 900 megawatts of electricity in a year.
Gov. Cox proposed a solution to this, building a bigger base load for Utah to keep costs low, and then exporting power to the rest of the nation to aid Utah’s economy. “This is no longer about energy transition, this is about energy addition. We cannot afford to shut down anything,” stated Cox.
Another issue addressed by Cox was the need to localize advanced material production. “we’re seeing companies manufacturing companies and mass manufacturing companies, more and more saying we have to get out of China. We cannot do business there anymore. We just don’t trust them, we have to get closer to home.” He went on to say that he views Carbon County as the perfect place for advanced material manufacturing, something that could create more jobs locally.
On the topic of creating local jobs, Cox discussed initiatives in place that encourage companies to come to rural areas instead of the Wasatch Front. Speaking of incentives and government funding, Gov. Cox explained,” The idea was look, you can get a little bit if you’re going to the Wasatch Front. But if you want the whole thing, find someplace in rural Utah.”
Cox then opened up to questions from attendees of the event. The first question asked was regarding his earlier statements on energy addition, and whether this was planned through coal, nuclear or other means of production. “We want all of the above with those Investments …I think you will see more natural gas because it’s the easiest bridge to get there. And so we’ve got to be building more of those. I think you’ll see that geothermal is going to play a big role, in large part because of the technology from oil and gas fields.” Cox continued,” I was grateful that Rocky Mountain Power backed off their plans to close our coal plants. Because again, not only would we not have something ready to replace them, but the demand is going to be so much higher.”
Another question asked to the Governor was if there really is to be a boom of new jobs in the area, how would these workers be housed affordably? In December of 2023, Gov. Cox announced a plan for the state to build 35,000 starter homes by 2028. Gov. Cox also allotted $29.5 billion to achieve this goal. The first stage of this plan occurred in Weber County, but Cox stated that soon he aims to expand this program across the state to help fight against surging housing prices.
Another question aimed at Cox was why the state is taking money from the County’s sales tax income and using it to fund services for the homeless and those suffering from addiction in the Wasatch Front but not expanding those services back to rural counties. Cox explained the original thought process was that a homeless person in Carbon County would eventually end up in Salt Lake, but that he understood the concern.
The final question for Cox was regarding water in the county, and how the County’s single reservoir could handle the increase in people that he was predicting. Price City Mayor Micheal Kourianos jumped in and explained that there was a plan in the works already to build another reservoir for the County. Cox added to this by saying,” Sadly, it’s hard to do with federal rivers and streams, but we’re trying to find workarounds and work with our partners there and hopefully, we get an administration that’ll work more closely with us.”
*Photo Courtesy of Spencer Cox