Energy

BRIGHAM CITY — Residents will pay a bit more on their electric and other utility bills with the city’s energy tax increasing from 2.25 percent to 4 percent.

However, the energy tax rate increase was less than the original overture, which would have more than doubled the rate to 5 percent. The 4 percent rate increase works out to $1.75 more on a $100 utility bill.

The city council recently approved the energy tax increase, hurrying to get the decision in before Oct. 1, which gives the city the requisite 90-day period before the new rate goes into effect Jan. 1.

POLL: Who do you blame for high gas prices?

OGDEN -- When Mike Bachman started his plumbing business 38 years ago, paying for gas wasn't much of an issue.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A state engineer is setting the stage for the development of Utah's first nuclear power plant.

SYRACUSE — People late in paying their utility bills will not be cut any slack, according to city officials.

In an effort to reduce a growing problem, city leaders formally implemented a $10 fine in February on residents whose utility bills are 10 days past due. Officials said approximately 9.3 percent of the city’s utility users were at least one month late in paying their bill.

Councilwoman Karianne Lisonbee asked officials to consider the potential for a hardship waiver in some of the cases. After extensive discussion, officials said they will wait at least six months to reconsider any waiver.

PANGUITCH -- It was the simple beauty of the sagebrush hills and the first-rate fishing that drew Vince Salvato here 15 years ago. "All I wanted was a quiet, pristine place with clean air," he said, sipping sarsaparilla inside Bronco Bobbi's curio shop in this tiny town in southern Utah. "That's why I came here."

But the tranquility has been broken by the day-and-night rumble of trucks ferrying coal from a strip mine near Bryce Canyon National Park to a power plant three hours to the north.

The gritty fuel helps satisfy the huge appetite for power more than 500 miles away in Los Angeles. But it is now stoking controversy at both ends of the transmission lines over energy policy, environmental damage and how much consumers should pay to kick the coal habit.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Fresh off his victory in Nevada, Mitt Romney turned his attention to Colorado, whose voters will caucus on Tuesday. In the modest meeting room of a slightly faded motel on the Rockies' Western slope, where mining companies and environmentalists have battled over coal extraction, Romney slammed President Barack Obama's energy policies.