SALT LAKE CITY — Clean-air initiatives at the state level may come at a price for Questar customers.
Sen. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, is pushing legislation to facilitate a move toward compressed natural gas, a move he admitted Wednesday could impact local utility bills.
His bill, SB 275, could add 8 cents a month, or almost $1 a year, to local gas bills.
The bill, awaiting further review in the House, takes a three-pronged approach to using a cleaner fuel alternative, with Questar as a key catalyst.
The measure focuses on building CNG fueling stations throughout the state and would create an interlocal agency with the ability to bond for natural gas fleet purchases.
The bill directs the Public Service Commission to explore options to advance and promote clean-air measures and provides a cost-recovery system through Questar that would pay for natural gas fueling stations.
Adams said Questar Gas will play a key role in the initiative in being able to reach interlocal agreements with school districts and municipalities to lead the conversion to a cleaner fuel source.
He said the utility would fund that initiative through a conservation fund, which may need an infusion of as much as $5 million to move forward with the program.
“It’s hard to know how that will happen,” Adams said of the funding.
“Are we willing as a public to pay $1 a year to clean up the air?” Adams said. “I am.”
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