Hello Fellow Utahns!

Our overall goal is to enhance our economy and our regional competitiveness by improving Utah's compromised air quality.

Taking a Business Approach to our biggest Economic and Environmental Challenge - Our Regional Air Quality

Clean up our Air Quality (we've just been ranked 5th worst nationwide)

Enhance our Region's Economic Competitiveness (growing and attracting new businesses here)

Defend and Improve our Health (and Reduce Utah's Health Care Burden - $4-6 Billion annual impact due to air related illnesses!),

Avoid coal price shocks in a tightening regulatory environment,

Tap Utah's other local energy resources -

Natural Gas, Geothermal, Wind, Solar and Biomass

Create High Tech, High Skill and High Wage Jobs here in Utah,

Develop an Energy Exporting Economy

Defend the quality of our Outdoor Recreational opportunities (fishing, hunting, skiing, running, cycling, camping, hiking, amateur and professional competitive sports)

Maintain Utah's reputation as a great place to live, work and play for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren!

STEP ONE was a Success! Our regulated utility, Rocky Mountain Power scrapped plans to build 3 new coal fired power plants in and around Utah citing significant economic uncertainty of this resource in the face of tightening emissions regulations and have announced a commitment not to build any more new coal plants for at least 10 years! Way to go Rocky Mountain Power!

STEP TWO is to address the UNREGULATED utilities - the "merchant" power plants who sell power to various utilities, usually exploiting thin approval requirements in less populated areas (where fewer people = less risk of protest). To be fair to our regulated utilities, these energy producers must live up to similar standards, including rigorous review processes.

STEP THREE is to take control of our mobile emissions - passenger vehicles, work vehicles, offroad & marine vehicles, trucks and heavy equipment, large capacity passenger transportation, small gasoline tools (lawnmowers, snowblowers, etc). We should push to install pollution controls on vehicles that don't have them, and look to the cleanest options to suit our needs even among those that do. Two-stroke engines could be replaced by electric options (such as lawnmowers) as these have disproportionately high emissions issues relative to their size.

We're all in this together, and a little action by a lot of people can make a BIG difference in making Salt Lake City and its neighboring cities and towns breathable again!

Search This or other Energy and Clean Air Related Sites Below

LessCoal began as outreach effort in an Open Letter from Businesses, Citizens and Organizations in Utah to Warren E. Buffett, ultimately the owner of Rocky Mountain Power in connection with their proposal to the Utah Public Service Commission to build several more coal fired plants to serve Utah. The petition was successful, and now the effort is expanding to address other emissions sources, and always with the goal to protect Utah's economic competitiveness relative to our neighboring states by making sure our business and environmental decisions do not compromise one of Utah's best features - our strikingly beautiful setting that lures people and businesses here in the first place.

If you wish to talk about the above issues in greater depth or to get more involved at the local level, feel free to call Alex at 435-659-9399. Increased dialogue is the best outcome in this outreach effort.

Background on LessCoal.com's founder - Alexander Lofft is a commercial real estate broker in the Salt Lake City market, and has started redeveloping old buildings into more efficient and sustainable office and retail locations. He has a Masters in Business Administration from Georgetown University and has a background in the energy industry through his previous work at the US Department of Commerce in Washington, DC.