By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo courtesy of the Utah House of Representatives

As the 2026 general session of the Utah State Legislature has passed its midway point, Rep. Christine Watkins joined the KOAL newsroom to recap the session thus far, as well as discuss energy developments across the state.

Opening our conversation, Watkins provided an update on the state plan to purchase the East Carbon Coke Ovens, “It’s very positive so far. I’m hearing really good things. It has not been finalized. We present before the executive appropriations committee on Wednesday and Thursday nights to all of the appropriation committees. And then after that, the executive appropriation committee decides the ones that will be funded and which ones won’t.”

Watkins added that she expects to have a definitive answer by next week.

Switching gears, Watkins spoke on the recent PacifiCorp sale of its Washington service area to Portland General Electric. “They’re actually going to sell the Washington state service area to Portland General Electric for $1.9 billion. And the reason that’s so important for us here in Utah is that, as a legislature, we stood up to PacifiCorp and said, ‘You cannot bill the constituents or customers in Utah for the fires, the damage, or the costs of the fires in Washington state, Oregon, or California.’ So, we really dug our heels in the ground and said we’re just not going to let you do this.”

Continuing on the theme of energy, Watkins discussed HB401, a bill which would “direct the Office of Energy Development to conduct a study to examine the feasibility of developing geothermal energy facilities at or near existing coal-powered electrical generation facilities.”

“There could possibly be geothermal energy that could be used. And the question was asked, why aren’t we doing this? Well, let’s do the research, let’s see if it’s a possibility, and if it’s not, then we leave it alone,” explained Watkins.

Moving from geothermal to nuclear, Watkins spoke on Sunday’s arrival of Valar Atomics’ Ward250 reactor to Utah: “This is something that I’m so impressed with, because when I went to the groundbreaking where they were going to build their building, they said, ‘This is our timeline. We’re going to get this ready here in Orangeville, and it’s being built in California. We will fly it out here. This is going to happen in February.”

She continued,” I’ve been up here long enough that we’ve had companies come and say, ‘We’re going to do this by this time, and it’s going to be great, and we’re going to save everybody,’ and nothing ever happens. These guys have really followed through with what they said they were going to do.”

Closing our conversation, Watkins stated,” I just want everyone to know we’re working hard up here. I feel like we’ve passed some really great legislation. We’ve got more to come, more to pass and some to stop. I’m just working hard for everybody, and thanks for your support.”