A development company may need to pay $1 million to drill for the geothermal resource, and if it has a dry hole, the expenses aren't recovered. Also, transmission lines between hot spots and distribution systems could be expensive.

Solar power isn't a panacea either, he said. A large solar power plant in Nevada produces electricity at about 14.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

A solar plant that focuses the sun's heat to drive power generation would cost about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour in Utah, Powlick added.

Another type of solar power system, using photovoltaic collector cells to directly convert sunlight into electricity, also is costly. "Photovoltaics are an expensive technology," he said.

"It generates (at) about 20 to 30 cents per kilowatt hour now." The pluses include its ease of installation, the uniform nature of the resource and the ease with which photovoltaic cells can be installed.

This kind of solar generation can be done "anywhere it's sunny," he said.

"Of course, it's zero-emission," he said. That helps the environment by not releasing toxic fumes and helps people enjoy healthier lives.

"Are the benefits of photovoltaics worth the much higher cost?" Powlick wondered. "I won't get into that debate. Maybe we can get into that some other day."

Jason Berry, also with the state energy program, said wind projects would cost about $1 million per mile just to tie in with the power grid.

Dan Elcan, managing director of Oil Shale Exploration Co., which is working on research and development at the White River Mine southeast of Vernal, told lawmakers that Utah's oil shale is some of the richest in the world, with the most oil per ton of rock. The oil shale has little water content, which also raises its value.

When heated to 800 degrees, using shale as a heat source, hydrocarbons are driven off. The product can be processed into a "sweet syn-crude," he said.

After the company's lease became effective on July 1, it shipped 300 tons to Calgary, Canada, for content analysis. "All three laboratories have designated the product as a medium sweet syn-crude, which is fairly easy to refine into both diesel fuel and jet fuel," he said. "So it is a very attractive product for refineries."

The company's goal is to produce 50,000 barrels per day in six years, with the shale extracted through underground mining.

Tar sands are another abundant resource in Utah.

"What we consider unconventional resources today are quickly becoming conventional," Ted McAleer, director of the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative, told the Natural Resources interim committee. "We actually have some of the richest oil shale in the world, and it's able to produce concentrations of 30 gallons of oil per ton of shale," McAleer added.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com