DOE backs Utah energy policy to shore up reliable power

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes · Last updated: 2026-08-21

Curt Coccodrilli, the acting assistant secretary for the Department of Energy’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office, told local officials he sees Utah as a key supplier of reliable electricity as the DOE shifts emphasis toward increasing baseload supply. As first reported by Deseret News, Coccodrilli said the department has moved from a focus on decarbonization to a priority of “adding electrons to the grid,” and that the agency intervened this year to keep 45 coal plants — producing more than 40 gigawatts — from going offline. He also argued Utah’s geology and existing infrastructure position the state to scale geothermal and other firm resources, and he suggested geothermal could power data centers by 2030.

“It’s night and day from the Biden administration,”

Curt Coccodrilli

Why the DOE has pivoted to firm, baseload energy

Curt Coccodrilli describes a clear shift in federal priorities: moving from policies that emphasise reducing emissions to ones that increase on-demand electricity. He frames the change around the phrase adding electrons to the grid, arguing that ensuring steady supply is the administration’s immediate task. That shift is operational: the department intervened earlier this year to keep 45 coal plants — which together produce more than 40 gigawatts — from closing, a block of capacity the source says could serve about 29 to 33 million homes.

The practical implication is a tilt toward energy sources that deliver constant output: oil, gas, coal, nuclear and geothermal, in Coccodrilli’s list. The DOE official presented this as an affordability and reliability agenda, saying the president has prioritised lower rates. The department’s actions so far are defensive — stabilising existing capacity — but the policy signal is forward-looking: regulators and developers should expect federal support to favour projects described as firm or dispatchable.

Intermountain Power and Utah’s role as an energy exporter

Utah has supplied power to other states for decades, and the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) is the case in point. IPP sent coal-generated electricity to Los Angeles for 39 years before its two coal units, which together had nearly 2 gigawatts of capacity, retired last November after their contract ended. Coccodrilli said the plant is being assessed for stabilization, optimisation and potential future uses, but the source reports there are no firm plans yet on whether it will be reactivated or dismantled.

That long-term supply relationship helps explain why federal officials toured Utah sites: existing transmission corridors, workforce experience and mineral resources make the state attractive to policymakers focused on adding reliable electrons. For utilities that import power, such as Los Angeles, decisions about whether to rebuild, repower or replace dispatched capacity will hinge on contract structures, local politics and project economics; the DOE’s present posture increases the chance federal resources will back options that restore or replace firm output.

Geothermal: a bipartisan bridge and a 2030 target for data centers

Geothermal energy — heat drawn from beneath the Earth — is one of the technologies the DOE official highlighted because it combines reliability with very low direct carbon emissions. Coccodrilli argued Utah’s geology, with a thinner crust in parts of the state, gives developers commercially attractive heat. He noted the technical hurdles still to solve, such as material durability at extreme temperatures and efficient upward heat transport, but characterised those as surmountable with research and engineering.

The article quotes Coccodrilli saying Utah could see geothermal-powered data centers by 2030 if projects find three ingredients: close access to a water source, proximity to extreme heat underground and existing power lines. That three-part condition frames what developers must line up to make large, continuous-load facilities practical, and it converts a geological advantage into a concrete industrial target with a year attached.

Affordability, politics and how states’ mixes differ

Coccodrilli tied the DOE’s emphasis on firm capacity to electricity affordability. The reporting cites a comparison that puts California’s retail price at about 33 cents per kilowatt-hour while Utah’s is about 13 cents. Those differences reflect long-standing policy choices: the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles reports 41% of its mix comes from renewables, about a third from natural gas, 15% from nuclear, 11% from coal and 3% from large hydropower.

An external tally the article cites — from the Institute for Energy Research — finds that states with prices above the national average are concentrated in one party’s jurisdictions (86% reliably Democratic), while eight of the 10 cheapest states are reliably Republican (80%). The combination of political choices, resource endowments and transmission arrangements is central to why the DOE is prioritising projects that can deliver continuous output and lower consumer bills.

How the plan could play out

The bottom line

The DOE’s present posture is explicit: stabilise existing firm capacity while supporting technologies that can deliver constant power. For Utah that means renewed attention to coal infrastructure already in place and to geothermal projects that can combine geology and transmission. The practical test over the next four years will be whether developers can convert geothermal potential into commercially bankable projects in time to meet the 2030 targets Coccodrilli described, and whether regulators and utilities align contracts and permitting to favour firm output rather than intermittent supply.

What to watch

• Watch for announcements of commercial geothermal projects or data center plans that target operation by 2030, the year Coccodrilli identified as possible for geothermal-powered facilities.
• Watch for a formal decision or sale notice for the Intermountain Power Project’s retired units; no date has been set for that decision.