IN OUR VIEW

Keeping the electric lights on in Utah County will require a delicate balancing act.

Richard Walje of Rocky Mountain Power has estimated that our growing county's need for power will eventually require the construction of the equivalent of six or seven 535-megawatt natural-gas-fired plants like Vineyard's Lake Side Power Plant.

That's a problem, but there are problems with all sources of power.

Exploring and drilling for natural gas and oil can hammer wildlands. Do you want to see derricks in your favorite retreat in Diamond Fork or in the Strawberry valleyfi

According to experts, drilling can lead to the release of pollutants into Earth, air or water -- benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, methane, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, chemical additives, salts, metals, hydrocarbons, radioactive materials, acids, metals, ethylene glycol, corrosion inhibitors and dozens of others. Sometimes these substances pollute lakes or aquifers.

Utahns' concerns should be heightened as plans are being drawn for gas leases in six national parks in Utah, in areas such as Book Cliffs and Strawberry.

Other optionsfi About 75 percent of Utah's power needs are generated by coal-fired plants. But these are fairly obvious sources of pollution.

Three conservation organizations recently appealed a federal decision allowing a Uintah County coal-fired power plant to expand. The organizations say the Bonanza plant would dump nearly 2 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually. Regardless whether you believe that man contributes materially to global warming, it's still not a great idea to belch garbage into our thin atmosphere. If not global warming, pollutants will surely lead to other problems one day.

On a day when the pollution in Utah County is so bad that you're advised to stay indoors, you might well agree.

The Crandall Canyon Mine disaster further reminds us of the human cost of mining coal.

Well, how about nuclear power plantsfi They don't emit greenhouse gases.

Ooops. Not in Utah. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has said he opposes a nuclear power plant in this state until there's technology to safely handle radioactive waste on site. That may take a long while. Huntsman assisted Utah's fight to stop a stockpile for tons of spent nuclear fuel at the Goshute reservation about 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. And we certainly don't want Utah to become the nation's nuclear dump even if we learn to handle waste from our own reactors.

Alternate sources, anyonefi

Sorry, but today fossil fuels meet about 80 percent of global energy demand; biofuels, wind and solar energy supply less than 1 percent. It will be awhile before alternative sources make a dent.

Many hold out high hopes for sun power. "Utah has abundant renewable resources, and anyone who stands outside on a hot day in July knows that," said Sara Baldwin of Utah Clean Energy, for the recent Utah Solar Tour.

We'd love to see our sunny state become an energy exporter. We applaud people like Peter Allen for equipping his Orem home with solar panels and a wind turbine to display for the tour. But, we note, his setup cost at least $15,000. That underlines the reality that solar power remains a fledgling technology.

Speaking of fledglings, what about wind powerfi

There, too, some environmentalists -- who you'd think would be friendly -- are busily asserting that the towering turbines kill birds. Other decry how a row of turbines mars the landscape.

In Massachusetts, a wind farm off Cape Cod plans to erect 130 wind turbines, each looming 440 feet above Nantucket Sound. Normally, liberal denizens of the Bay State howl that turbines would blight a dozen historic sites, not to mention the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port.

OK, biofuels, then. Right now presidential candidates are traipsing through Iowa, trying to outdo each other in extolling the wonders of ethanol. Surely it's a coincidence that the state is known for corn-growing.

But we recently got an earful about corn from Rolling Stone magazine, which did a big piece on "The Ethanol Scam: One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles." The magazine wrote that ethanol isn't cleaner or cheaper than gasoline, though its subsidies total half its pump price.

"Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes 20 percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World," the magazine reported.

The point is not to sort out all the competing claims in one editorial. The point is that Utah is going to need more power, soon. As a community we'll have to make some tough choices, and every choice has a down side. Utahns need to become educated on the alternatives.

We believe Utah can balance these competing interests with some compromises and creativity. And we need to start now.