As conservatives in Utah called nuclear energy a climate solution, tribal members protested it

Republicans wary of talking about the environment should look in a mirror, Utah Rep. John Curtis urges, and “say the word ‘climate.’”

If conservatives aren’t comfortable with the word itself, he argues, they’ll be left out of the conversation. And Curtis believes that confronting climate change isn’t just for Democrats.

“The way we talk about it is divisive. It pushes people away,” Curtis said Friday at his third annual Conservative Climate Summit, held at Utah Valley University in Orem. “And I think I’d like to talk about it in a way that brings people together.”

Curtis gathered speakers from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, the authors of a controversial plan for another Donald Trump administration called Project 2025, as well as The Nature Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit.

The congressman, who is running to replace Mitt Romney in the U.S. Senate, focused on the future of American energy.

“Affordable, reliable and clean,” Curtis told the audience. “The fuel types that hit those three categories will be dominant.”

“If you look at nuclear, what’s its Achilles’ heel? It’s affordability,” he continued. “We took a generation off nuclear, and now, surprise, it’s expensive when we try to get it going.”

Also Friday, just 40 minutes north at Utah’s Capitol, members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe protested nuclear energy and a uranium mill near their White Mesa community.

The community is five miles south of the country’s last conventional uranium mill, where uranium ore is processed into yellowcake, the first step in creating fuel for nuclear power. The White Mesa Mill has ramped up processing in the past year as a push for clean nuclear energy has increased demand for yellowcake.

“The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe does not support nuclear power as a solution to climate change,” said Scott Clow, the tribe’s environmental programs director, from the Capitol steps.

“We understand that you can generate electricity without a lot of carbon pollution once you have your fuel rods in place,” he continued, “but getting them there is a poisonous, disastrous process.”

Curtis represents Utah’s 3rd congressional district, which spans the resource-rich eastern half of the state. His constituents in Emery and Carbon counties live in the heart of Utah’s coal country, and those he represents in the Uinta Basin work in the state’s oil and gas industry.

His district also covers San Juan County, which is home to the White Mesa Mill and vast mineral resources, like lithium and uranium, considered critical to the clean energy transition.

While uranium is vital for nuclear power, lithium is an essential element in rechargeable batteries, which power computers, phones and electric vehicles.

Taking advantage of Utah’s natural resources, Curtis and others contend, bolsters national security. The U.S. has stronger environmental and public health regulations for mineral recovery than other countries, he added.

“We need to bring a lot of that back to the United States,” Curtis added, “because we can control it.”

Opening keynote speaker Victoria Coates from The Heritage Foundation highlighted energy security. She is vice president of the foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy.

If Trump is elected this fall, she said, energy will be the sector with the greatest policy changes.

“I want to be ready to supply each and every American with dense, reasonably priced, plentiful energy to the end of this century,” Coates said. “And heaven knows we’re going to need it.”

Coates “proudly participated” in developing Project 2025, she said, and is listed as a contributor to the plan.

Curtis said that he believes the U.S. will be relying on fossil fuels “in 2050, with net-zero emissions.”

“I don’t think there’s anybody, with our current energy resources today, who can draw up a plan for 2050 energy needs without fossil fuels,” he continued. “So, it’s imperative that they get clean, because we’re going to need them.”

Caroline Gleich, Curtis’ Democratic opponent in the Senate race, condemned the Conservative Climate Summit for hosting The Heritage Foundation and representatives of the oil and gas industry.

“This summit is nothing more than a distraction orchestrated by the fossil fuel industry to delay, distract and hide their destructive impact on our health and climate,” she said in a Friday statement. “Utah doesn’t need more empty talk.”

But Rep. Blake Moore, who represents Utah’s 2nd congressional district, praised Utah’s oil and gas industry for exceeding environmental metrics. People in Utah’s urban areas, he said, “don’t see the type of responsible stewardship that our energy producers are taking.”

Summit attendees also attended presentations about sustainable agriculture, permitting on federal land, water economics and the profitability of clean energy.

Rep. Celeste Maloy said that Republicans must be part of the climate conversation, despite conservatives’ aversion to the topic.

“If we automatically demonize it,” Curtis said, echoing Maloy’s point, “we don’t get to have that conversation.”