This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah communities seeking to improve their facilities by tapping a pool of mineral royalties should not have to pledge their troth to the extractive economy just to get the help they deserve.

A recent outburst from state Rep. Mike Noel, accusing the community of Torrey of rank hypocrisy for seeking funds to improve its municipal water system, proves that it is Noel, and not the good folks of Torrey, who needs some educating.

A share of the royalties realized from mining and drilling on federal land goes to the Utah Community Impact Board. That body hands out grants to communities as a way of compensating them for the strain the boom-and-bust fossil fuel business puts on the environment and the infrastructure of affected communities.

It is a way for a town to have something — in Torrey's case, a bigger water line — that remains after the wealth of the land is taken and those who took it have long since moved on.

But the application from Torrey for $515,000 toward its water system improvements has drawn Noel's wrath because, apparently, some individuals in that community were upset about the creation of a gravel pit near their town. It was a reasonable concern, given that the town is staking much of its future on the tourism drawn to nearby Capitol Reef National Park and not, necessarily, on hopes of another oil, coal or uranium boom.

Noel's argument that there should be no royalty money for folks who don't wholeheartedly support a future of drilling and mining — call it a "royalty oath" — is absurd. As is his argument dismissing everyone who might think otherwise as "knotheads" who "think that money grows on trees."

Money doesn't grow on trees. Nor will it always come, in such large amounts, from holes in the ground.

It's no good pretending that so much of what we have — from cars to computers to tourist-magnet campgrounds — does not have a fossil fuel base to it. Or that hotel taxes will ever raise as much money as oil royalties sometimes do.

But Noel's anger is not properly directed at Torrey or Moab or any number of eco-tourists who fly and drive long distances to see landscapes devoid of drilling rigs.

His real beef is with the 21st century, with the fact that coal is dead, that the long-term economic future of rural Utah will depend increasingly on tourism and that its role in energy production, which could be considerable, will be tied to renewables such as solar and wind.

Torrey should receive its grant. Noel is wrong to make that process more difficult. And all involved should turn their attention to the day when Utah will have to make its way without so much revenue from unsustainable sources.