The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a relentless demand for electricity has kept the economies of Emery and Carbon counties humming through the Great Recession.
Not that there haven’t been plenty of personal and commercial brownouts in the past couple of years. At the food banks Jackie Butkovich runs in Price and Castle Dale, the number of families being served was 83% higher last month than in September 2008. Some businesses did not survive.
But the drain on her limited resources could have been much worse if it were not for the stabilizing force provided by the high paying jobs involved in generating electricity at PacifiCorp’s three coal fired power plants Hunter 1 in Castle Dale, Huntington outside the Emery County town of the same name, and the Carbon plant near Helper.
Hundreds work directly at the plants or on power lines emanating from them. Hundreds more work in the coal mines that supply the fossil fuel that turns the turbines to make the electricity. Scores of truck drivers are employed moving cut coal from mines to PacifiCorp’s plants or to rail lines where it will be hauled to other utilities. Service companies abound that provide the labor and supplies needed to keep mining equipment, big rigs and giant electrical motors and fans running smoothly.
Mr Gary Haeck supervisor of inside maintenance at the Hunter plant said that "If you are from Carbon or Emery, everything we do here revolves around energy. Take the plants away and everything goes. These little towns wouldn't have anything."
Instead, with its two coal fired plants being mainstays since the mid-1970s, and dozens of consultants now studying the possibility of building a nuclear powered plant near Green River, Emery County is one of Utah's only counties to show job growth this year.
Mr John Krantz, a regional economist with the Utah Department of Workforce Services, said that even in 2009, when the recession was at its worst nationally, Emery County's job loss percentage was just 2.2%, fifth best in the state. Carbon County was better statistically, falling 1.1% from the previous year. But Carbon experienced a number of layoffs late in the year, and 2010 has continued that trend.
(Sourced from www.sltrib.com)
