A 20-percent energy-efficiency improvement would equate to a 17 percent reduction in energy use, Geller said. Without the efficiency measures, energy use is expected to rise 2 percent per year. With them, the rise could be cut to about a half-percent annually, he said.

"We're not calling for an actual reduction in energy use in the future, but we're reducing the growth significantly," he said.

Sarah Wright, executive director of Utah Clean Energy and co-author of the report, said Utah has diverse energy resources and the strategy "is a huge step toward the development of our largely untapped energy-efficiency potential."

"Energy efficiency is the quickest, cleanest, cheapest resource we have available to us today to meet our growing energy demand," Wright said. "We can mine it and we can develop it just like we mine and develop our other energy resources in this state."

Researchers described the strategy as "a road map" and "just a first step." Nielson said various stakeholders were involved in the study. Geller noted that utilities, industries and other stakeholder representatives pored over a draft report in May before the final version was released Tuesday.

"I don't think I want to suggest that every single recommendation is supported by every citizen and business in the state, but hopefully we've done a lot to build support, to reflect concerns and address concerns that we heard," Geller said. "And I'm hopeful that there would be broad support for most, if not all, of the policies that we're recommending."

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