The second biggest part of the new legislation is a change in the standard for approving new energy resources. Under current rules, the PSC gives the go-ahead for new energy projects if a need exists.

"Beyond that they didn't have much of a role in picking or selecting the resources," Dodge said. "In this revamped bill the standard will not be is there just a need, but rather what's in the best interest of Utah."

The new legislation would allow for a pre-approval of the new resource, essentially guaranteeing future cost recovery. Under the current process, PacifiCorp must first demonstrate a need for a new energy resource, but it may not recover the cost until after the resource has been built and after the utility has shown that the resource was prudent and in the public interest.

"We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that we're competing with many other utilities and other industries in trying to get that equity," Rich Walje, PacifiCorp's executive vice president, recently said. "One of the things that will make us a more attractive investment is if there is some level of confidence when we make a big investment decision that it's been agreed to in advance."

Research funding

A bill likely will be drafted to support more spending for Utah's two publicly funded research universities.

A recent study commissioned by the Salt Lake Chamber, and made public last week, calls for $400 million in spending for facilities and nonfacilities for the University of Utah and Utah State University over five years.

The study proposed a Brain Institute and Bioinformatics Building for the University of Utah, at a total of $150 million; a Life Sciences Institute and an Infectious Agent Laboratory at Utah State University, totaling $100 million; the creation of three "technology innovation centers" in the state, totaling $20 million, plus $5 million for technology commercialization activities; and 25 "research clusters" at the new facilities, costing $125 million over five years.

The thinking is that Utah could fortify certain research strengths of those universities, and eventually the economic benefits would outweigh any state financial commitment.

Pricing freedom

A bill that popped up during the final meeting of the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee could lead to some hot discussion during the upcoming session.

While focusing on some technical issues, the upshot of the bill would be allowing Qwest Communications International Inc. to have more freedom in pricing its services in areas where it faces competition, effectively eliminating burdens placed on it in the mid-1990s to foster phone competition.