Tim Fitzpatrick - The Salt Lake Tribune

(Varda Industries) West High graduate Delian Asparouhov, seated, and business partner Will Bruey are co-founders of Varda Space Industries, a startup that aims to produce pharmaceutical chemicals in space.

He graduated from West High, dropped out of MIT and now his work is soaring in space

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 22, 2024, 4:34 p.m.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Homes built by Community Rebuilds in Arroyo Crossing in Moab include rooftop solar panels. The Utah legislative committee has advanced a bill that would increase the compensation rooftop solar customers get from Rocky Mountain Power for the excess electricity they generate.

Why Utah’s rooftop solar customers soon may get more money back

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 16, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George, during a meeting of the House Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee at the Capitol, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. Jack told colleagues that coal-fired power plants act like "giant air filters" and clean the air.

Utah legislator calls coal plants ‘giant air filters,’ but is he full of hot air?

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 13, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Rick Bowmer | AP) Wes Dawson, of Malibu, Calif., flies with his water-powered jet pack on the Willamette River in Portland, Ore., in 2012. Utah lawmaker are considering taxing such "novel vehicles."

Legislators look to tax the odd new vehicles showing up in Utah

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 12, 2024, 9:48 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Glove Box at the San Rafael Research Center, in Emery County near Orangeville, in 2022. State legislators are considering a bill for a state takeover of the center, which Emery County has struggled to make self-sufficient.

County wants out, so Utah may step in and buy coal country science lab

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 8, 2024, 3:28 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Construction of a new green-energy system at International Power Project's coal-fired power plant in Delta on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. The smokestack in the background is the currently operating coal plant, which state legislators are trying to keep running.

You — Utah taxpayers — could end up buying a coal plant as legislators advance IPP plan

By Tim Fitzpatrick | February 2, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George, presents legislation during a meeting of the House Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee at the Capitol, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024.

You may pay more for power as Utah legislators advance bills to keep coal burning

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 30, 2024, 5:51 p.m.

(Rick Bowmer | AP) Employees of Sawtooth Caverns walk in front of transmission towers on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, in Delta. Sawtooth operates underground fuel-storage caverns at the site, and Utah legislators are considering a state fuel reserve in the area.

A fuel reserve fit for a doomsday scenario? Utah lawmakers are exploring it.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 29, 2024, 4:46 p.m.

(Eric Risberg | AP) The former Oakland Army Base pier at left and the Port of Oakland at lower right in Oakland, California, Feb. 5, 2016. A federal judge in California released a ruling this week that keeps alive the possibility that Utah coal could pass through the port on its way to Asia.

Utah offered to help pay for a coal port in California, but activists blocked the plan. Now a judge has weighed in.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 25, 2024, 6:01 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, at a Senate committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. Plumb has introduced a bill that would allow Utahns to compost their dead loved ones.

A final resting place in the garden? Bill would allow composting of human remains in Utah.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 23, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, left, is joined by Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, on the House floor in the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Both legislative leaders have made energy independence a priority this year, but it's unclear what that means.

Fact check: Lawmakers are right. Utah isn’t energy independent. They may be wrong that it should be.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 19, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Railroad trucks near final installation on electric trains at Stadler Rail's plant in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024.

Utah’s Stadler rail plant rolling out clean trains to replace diesel

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 16, 2024, 4:29 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A diesel-powered train bound for the Dallas area nears shipment at Stadler Rail's plant in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. The diesel train's engine compartment is designed so it can be converted to a battery-powered system in the future. Stadler is building a battery-powered version of this train in a project with Utah State University's ASPIRE center to demonstrate that it's possible to run a commuter rail line on batteries.

Will FrontRunner run on batteries? This test train could show it can.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 14, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, speaks at a news conference at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Schultz said legislators will change regulations to assert more control over Rocky Mountain Power.

Top Utah lawmaker on clean energy: We’re betting on coal — for now

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 13, 2024, 4:25 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The sun sets on the Utah Capitol in February 2022.

Utah government in the shadows? The Utah Transparency Project shines the light for you.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 12, 2024, 1:07 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rocky Mountain Power's Huntington Power Plant in Emery County, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Clean energy advocates are questioning whether Rocky Mountain can stick to its plan to retire the coal-fired plant by 2032.

Rocky Mountain Power pauses new energy deals; can it meet clean-power goals?

By Tim Fitzpatrick | January 2, 2024, 1:25 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Piles have been driven in for about 30% of a huge solar farm under construction near Fairfield on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. The piles eventually will hold rows of solar panels that will pivot with the sun to generate power for Facebook parent company Meta.

A huge new Utah solar farm could power half a million homes. It will fuel Facebook and Instagram instead.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | December 21, 2023, 4:39 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Lila Canyon coal mine, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. The mine stopped producing in September 2022 after a coal pillar spontaneously combusted on Sept. 20, 2022, and started a stubborn fire. The mine never reopened and is now "idled indefinitely."

Utah mine that caught fire no longer looking to reopen, a sign of coal’s times

By Tim Fitzpatrick | December 21, 2023, 9:29 p.m.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Eden Technology CEO Hunter Manz, left, greets Gov. Spencer Cox during an event marking the first investment of the Utah Innovation Lab, a state funded venture capital program, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023.

Utah embraces its tech startups by taking a piece of the action

By Tim Fitzpatrick | December 12, 2023, 1:07 p.m.

(Mark Ylen | Albany Democrat-Herald via AP) Chairs stand at the Gates Post office in the aftermath of a fire in Gates, Ore., Sept 9, 2020. The post office was destroyed along with several other buildings in the Santiam Canyon community as a result of the Santiam Fire. A jury verdict found Rocky Mountain Power's parent company PacifiCorp liable for devastating wildfires in Oregon in 2020, and the company is looking to its Utah customers to help cover a jump in insurance costs after the verdict.

Who should pay for Rocky Mountain Power’s rising insurance costs, Utah customers or Warren Buffett?

By Tim Fitzpatrick | December 7, 2023, 1:07 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) New Chevrolet pickup trucks are seen parked at a dealership in Murray on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Out of the 20 top-selling vehicle models in Utah this year, only one, the Toyota Camry, is a passenger car, and it was in 20th place. The 19 vehicles listed above the Camry are all SUVs and trucks.

Why many Utahns are paying more than $1,000 a month for their cars

By Tim Fitzpatrick | December 6, 2023, 1:49 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
A helicopter makes drops on a wildfire east of Tooele. Friday July 27, 2018. Utah's largest electric utility, Rocky Mountain Power, had to pull back its wildfire management plan after foresters from the state pointed out weaknesses.

Rocky Mountain Power dumps wildfire plan after it draws fire from state foresters

By Tim Fitzpatrick | November 25, 2023, 5:18 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Andre Zeitoun, the founder and CEO of Ionic Mineral Technologies, shows a piece of mined halloysite that will be processed into a nano-silicon powder to increase battery performance at the company’s production facility in Provo on Friday, Nov. 17, 2023.

A mine in Utah may be a key to making more lithium car batteries in the U.S.

By Tim Fitzpatrick | November 24, 2023, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) International Power Project's coal-fired power plant in Delta on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. Utah legislators are considering a bill that would put legislators in control of the power plant.

Power play: Legislators move to take control of Utah coal plant before it closes

By Tim Fitzpatrick | November 16, 2023, 4:34 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Electric vehicle charging stations at Sam's Club in Salt Lake City on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The Utah Department of Transportation has chosen the companies that will operate fast-charging stations around the state.

Rocky Mountain Power, Maverik to operate 11 of first 15 state EV charging stations

By Tim Fitzpatrick | November 15, 2023, 1:00 p.m.