A conversation last summer between two Utah legislators shows the lack of consensus about how much coal Utah still has.

Rep. Mike Noel, co-chairman of the Utah Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee, was sparring with committee member Rep. Lynn N. Hemingway over legislation that could be modeled on a Florida law allowing utilities to recoup the cost of nuclear power plant construction.

Hemingway, D-Holladay, said as far as he was concerned, Utah and Florida are like apples and oranges. Other than nuclear power, Florida has no way to generate electrical power — "absolutely none."

On the other hand, he added, "I would just warn that we have a lot of alternatives that I hope would come before nuclear."

"Just maybe clarify," Noel queried. "What are those alternatives, Representative?"

Hemingway: "Our coal reserves, number one."

Noel replied, "And I guess I maybe would question that because of the testimony I've heard in this committee for the last several years, that our coal reserves are on a steep decline, and that the coal that we're now extracting is at over a thousand feet (depth) and it's very marginal, it's very expensive, and now we're getting the pressures from the carbon impact of that coal."

Three months after the discussion took place, news broke that the Kane County Water Conservancy District, whose executive director is Noel, had signed a potentially lucrative agreement to supply water to a planned privately funded nuclear power plant.