The present cost of power generation is about $35 per megawatt-hour. Any new plant would cost more because of increased fuel expenses and construction costs.

"No matter what we do, the costs are going to go up," Walje said. That's simply to build a generating plant.

"If you start applying different kinds of carbon taxes or policies on that, then it starts going up more rapidly than other resources." Some other sources of energy, such as wind power and nuclear plants, would not have "what I'll call a carbon penalty."

Utahns who were polled said they would not be willing to pay more than an additional 20 percent more for electricity in order to help control greenhouse gases. With a typical bill of $1,000 yearly, that could mean an additional $200 spent for the cause.

Assuming people can't jump off the grid anytime soon, what would be the real cost of new technologies in terms of power bills?

"Based on most of the different kind of proposals we've seen out of states and Congress," Walje said, "I don't think a doubling or even a tripling would be an unreasonable assumption."

Under that scenario, a typical bill would go up by $1,000 or $2,000 a year — far more than people seem to expect.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com