Energy task force explains draft bill

Among concepts for the draft bill discussed Thursday is having the PSC write bid-process rules rather than the Legislature. "The rules can be changed much easier than the code can," Ure said, adding that he favors having the commission do the work because of its expertise.

Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, said he wants the process to include preferences to Utah businesses.

"I think that's very important. I don't care who the contractor is or where they come from. My concern is that the Utah businesses, suppliers, contractors and employees get a little boost out of this whole process, too," he said.

"I know that other states give preferential awards on contracts to generals or contractors or businesses who hire craftspeople within their state. . . . The last thing I want to see — and I'll say it again and I'll keep saying it until we resolve this issue — is a site like we saw down in Payson, which was a municipal power plant, with 80 percent of the cars out of Texas, Alabama and Colorado. Not acceptable. Not when we have suppliers and contractors going out of business in this state."

Blackham encouraged ev- eryone at Thursday's meeting to provide suggestions for the draft bill. The document will be ready for people to review about a week before the task force's next meeting, set for 10 a.m. Nov. 3. Public testimony will be taken then.

As for Thursday's meeting, Blackham received little feedback from task force members about the flow chart and some of the draft bill concepts.

"To me, it shows the direction we want to go, but we all know that the Catch-22 is going to be in the words as to how we phrase it out there and define it and put that in language," Ure said. "And that's going to be tough to do."

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