America's commitment to coal as its favorite source of electricity has to be closely evaluated and perhaps eventually abandoned, a panel of leading environmental, climate and industry representatives said during a two-hour public forum Thursday night.

As the public utilities power up to meet the demands of the growing West, coal-generated electricity cannot continue to be the primary source of power — currently 90 percent of the supply. The environment can't tolerate it and suppliers can't handle it, panelists said during Thursday's session of the ongoing Science and Society Public Dialogue series.

Richard Walje, President of Pacific Corp., the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, said population growth alone in Utah will create a 3,500 megawatt deficit in the state by 2016.

"There are more people, and more people are using more electricity," Walje said. "In addition, it turns out Utah has the highest average square footage per household in the country. And those homeowners aren't happy with a swamp cooler, and they want high-definition televisions."

With the conflicting goals of generating power and reducing carbon emissions, "It's not clear how we're going to pull that off."

Other panelists agreed, pointing out that there is no clear path for what individuals, let alone industry, environmentalists and government agencies, can do that will make any difference at all with the dramatic climate changes that scientists say are well under way.

Jim Steenberg, a climatologist with the University of Utah, said the global mean temperature of the earth has increased 1.3 degrees in the past 100 years. Many believe it will increase by 3 to 9 degrees in the next 100 years. "Three degrees we can tolerate, nine degrees we couldn't."

Like a thermostat in a house, changes made now will not be felt immediately. "We are committed to dealing with the effects of greenhouse gasses from the past century," Steenberg said. "And any choices that we make today won't have any real effect for at least 20 years."

Methods currently being researched to make renewable power available are at least 50 years from implementation, the panelists agreed.

Something that could be done with immediate effect is conservation, but few people really do much about it, they said.

A big problem is that consumers have had constant and abundant access to electricity for so long most people only think about it when there is a power outage, with little thought about what they can do to keep their personal use down.

People are willing to pay more for power if the increase goes for steps to improve air quality, said Sarah Wright, executive director of the volunteer citizens group Utah Clean Energy. She added that people might be more active and speak out about construction and consumption if they had a voice in those decisions.