As Utahns deal with rising energy costs and prepare for extreme heat, drought and more intense wildfires, it’s alarming to see Congress miss a major opportunity to address these issues.
According to a new Yale-GMU study, 80% of registered voters support funding renewable energy, which is cost-effective and reduces the carbon pollution overheating our climate.
Yet the One Big Beautiful Bill just passed by Congress and signed by President Trump will hurt clean energy. The legislation phases out the popular clean energy tax credits which have given Utahns access to cheap and abundant wind and solar energy, affordable battery storage, and emissions-free electric cars.
These cuts make it harder to meet climate goals and will raise costs for families like mine. I’m disappointed by this vote. My family, our neighbors, and all Utah residents deserve better than higher bills and hotter summers.
I remain hopeful that Utah Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kennedy and Burgess Owens will take advantage of the opportunities presented by clean energy. I urge them to support solutions that will enable clean energy to stay competitive, grow, and deliver dependable and affordable power while reducing carbon pollution at the same time. I appreciate Utah Sen. John Curtis, who has been a proponent of clean energy and has worked to open doors for innovative financing and access to clean energy technology.
For decades, scientists have warned that burning fossil fuels for energy and transport releases carbon pollution into the air, which then traps heat in the atmosphere. Consequently, our world is warming, resulting in more extreme incidences of heat, drought, storms, flooding, and wildfires all over the globe.
In Utah, 52% of people think global warming will harm people in the U.S. That’s already true in our state. Severe wildfires in 2024 and 2025 have caused significant threats to Utah communities, resulting in evacuations in several areas and impacting air quality throughout the state.
And we’re not alone. Nearly two-thirds of Americans understand that global warming is affecting the weather in the U.S. (64%), and seven in 10 of us see the correlation with extreme heat (75%), wildfires (72%), droughts (72%), and flooding (71%).
We are seeing the consequences of a warming world in real time. But our elected leaders such as Sens. Curtis and Lee, and Reps. Moore, Maloy, Kennedy and Owens have an opportunity to support policies that advance clean energy and therefore shield us from the worsening impacts of extreme weather.
Unfortunately, the recent budget bill does the opposite. And alongside the human cost is a financial one. Independent modeling from Energy Innovation Policy & Technology finds that repealing federal funding and tax credits could shrink Utah’s GDP by $1.34 billion in 2030 compared to keeping current policies. For the average household, that means higher energy bills — an extra $20 per year by 2030, jumping to $120 by 2035. Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and that’s extra money we will have to find.
It doesn’t have to be this way, and this shouldn’t be a partisan issue. I hope to see Utah’s representatives work with their colleagues in Congress to fix the most harmful provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill law, reject additional tax credit cuts, and go further to accelerate clean energy development.
How much hotter will we let it get? How much higher will our energy bills rise? Hopefully not much, if Reps. Moore, Maloy, Kennedy, and Owens step up.
Julie Bowen
Park City