Nov 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. , a Republican, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, personally delivered the West's energy-policy priorities Friday to the incoming administration.

In a meeting with John Podesta, co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, the two governors told how Washington can help update the systems that deliver energy to Americans while reducing the pollution blamed for global climate change and greening the economy with clean-energy jobs.

"The transformation we are talking about is broad-based and will require new policies, incentives, market mechanisms and private-public partnerships to be in place by the end of next year," Huntsman said. "We plan to work with the new administration and Congress in addressing the multitude of energy challenges ahead."

"Western states are the country's energy breadbasket, but energy efficiency has also got to play a much bigger role," Schweitzer said. "That includes everything from manufacturing more fuel-efficient vehicles to changing regulatory structures so they reward utilities for achieving reduced energy usage among their customers."

Huntsman and Schweitzer were delivering the message on behalf of the Western Governors Association, a group composed of the chief executives of 19 states and three U.S.-flag islands in the Pacific. And their bipartisan effort comes at a time, two weeks after Americans voted to send to Washington a new team, that has highlighted

the need for greater energy security, creating green jobs, promoting alternative energy and tackling climate change.

This week, Obama praised the governors for their leadership and pledged his administration's help. It was a reversal from the soon-to-be-departing Bush administration, which snubbed efforts to deal with climate change.

"When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House," Obama said in a video address to a meeting hosted by California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Also this week, Sen. Barbara Boxer promised to introduce cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate. And, in the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee replaced its longtime leader, Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan congressman with a strong allegiance to the auto industry, with a strong advocate of dealing with climate change, Rep. Henry Waxman of California.

Back home in Utah, constituents had mixed reviews of Huntsman's involvement in the Western governors' energy initiative.

The Utah Farm Bureau Federation, with 500 assembled for its annual conference in Layton, heard a presentation on how efforts to control greenhouse gasses by shutting down coal-fired power plants would have a "negligible" impact on reducing global warming while having a devastating impact on the state's economy.

"The governor is ahead of himself," said Randy Parker, the farm bureau's chief executive officer. "He is out of line."

But Brigham Young University political science professor Byron Daynes was encouraged that the governors chose energy and the climate crisis as a high-priority item for the new president.

"It was as if they were waiting for the right time, the right president to come along" to seek support for their strategies, he said.

fahys@sltrib.com

High-priority

Western states provide the nation:

94% of onshore oil reserves

66% of coal reserves

91% wet natural gas onshore

82% dry natural gas onshore

100% installed solar thermal generation

100% installed geothermal generation

77% installed wind generation

82% installed, grid connected photovoltaic solar generation

Governors urge quick action

»They suggest seven priorities, including cutting greenhouse gasses, adopting a market approach, stepping up energy efficiency, reducing oil imports, encouraging energy research, aiding low-income consumers and promoting green jobs.

See the letter:

www.westgov.org/wga/testim/obama-energy11-20-08.pdf

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