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October 7, 2026 - The Trump administration’s recent emission regulation rollbacks could be the push Utah leaders need to maintain coal power generation — or it could accelerate the state’s move away from it entirely. No other state in the Southwest uses coal as a main energy producer — almost all have made the switch to natural gas or hydroelectric.
In the last 25 years, Utah has reduced coal power generation by almost half. In 2000, the state’s energy mix was made up of 94% coal. Last year, the mix consisted of 48% coal, 31% natural gas and 15% solar (among other sources).
Although the state has been slow to move away from coal, Utah maintains one of the cheapest rates in the region — about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour — compared to California’s 28 cents.
 Cyrus Western, regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, believes the low cost is exactly why coal is a valuable commodity.
Federal regulations — and their effects
The Trump administration is scrapping Biden-era emissions rules for power plants, saying the rollback will save the industry $310 billion. In an interview with the Deseret News, Western pointed to the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards — which heightened emissions standards — as an example of a regulation to rescind.
“The only way to meet those emissions levels was to just stop burning coal entirely,” he said. “There’s the 2012 standard, which is what we’ve reverted back to. ... That 2012 standard alone reduced over 90% of the mercury that coal-fired generation was emitting.”
 Western explained how many of the Biden-era regulations never went into effect in the first place or were litigated.
“Our rollback didn’t cause for one more ounce of mercury or lead or arsenic to be emitted into the air,” he added.
Western explained that for coal power plants to meet heightened emissions regulations, energy companies can rack up a large bill — costing hundreds of millions of dollars, or even billions in some cases.
The math adds up quickly, and there is no legislation in place to stop coal plants from passing the costs onto the consumer.
“If finalized, we really stand to see huge savings from this repeal because it was going to force some of these utility companies to spend billions of dollars to upgrade, and then they would turn right around and push those costs onto ratepayers by increasing utility bills,” he said.
Western explained that shutting down coal units harshly and immediately affects the baseload grid reliability, as coal is a dispatchable source. Coal is especially reliable in cold climates, storing fuel on-site whereas gas depends on pipelines.
Lastly, Western — a Wyoming native — pointed to mining communities.
“These are blue-collar folks who want to show up to work and do a good job and provide for themselves and their families,” he said. He explained that mining CEOs would consequently have to fire miners without a customer to sell coal to.
Utah’s energy future
 On the other hand, with a shrinking industry, coal may not be the cheap option it once was.
As the modern world moves toward clean energy, fewer companies are making necessary equipment for coal plants and fewer people are entering the mining labor force — all of which leads to a more costly bill, one steadily rising over time.
Despite the Trump administration’s rollbacks, Utah may already be pulling away from coal. The Inflation Reduction Act — signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 — funneled almost $370 billion in tax credits and incentives toward clean energy development.
“We want to take a look at all modes,” said state Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville. “Coal has been reliable, but that’s being replaced by natural gas and other sources. We’ve got nuclear energy coming in. We’ve got geothermal. We’ve got solar. We want to have all of the above.
We don’t want to preclude anything, because we know in the future technologies are changing.”
Harper also pointed to the emissions that the once coal-dependent western world relied on as another reason to move on — describing the ash-covered walls of a 1900s home.
According to the United Nations, fossil fuel combustion accounted for nearly 80% of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions between 1970 and 2010.
“You don’t have that anymore,” he added, describing the cleaner versions of coal now used in the U.S.
Now, Harper and other Utah leaders are looking to other sources to continue technological advancements toward cleaner power. As technologies move forward, some leaders view the Trump administration’s rollbacks as something holding innovators back, rather than looking forward.
“Right now we need dependable, reliable, dispatchable energy,” said Harper. “And I think these new technologies will provide that.”
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