<span>SALT LAKE CITY – The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release new regulations this week to reduce carbon pollution from existing coal-fired power plants.</span>

<span>There have been warnings that costs will be passed along to consumers in Utah, but a </span><a href=”http://aceee.org/research-report/e1401″ target=”parent”>study</a><span> from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy shows that efficiency could meet carbon reduction targets. </span>

<span>”In Utah, the adoption of these solutions will result in 5,900 new jobs and an increase in gross state product of $230 million,” says the report’s author, Sara Hayes. “This approach saves ratepayers $100 million.”</span>

<span>The report says the numbers would be achieved by 2030, under a scenario of cutting carbon by 26 percent below 2012 levels.</span>

<span>Hayes says efficiency may be the easiest way for states to meet the EPA carbon reduction plan. </span>

<span>Efficiency policies include state energy savings targets, updating building codes, constructing combined heat and power facilities and adopting standards for major appliances.</span>

<span>”Energy efficiency is the ultimate resource,” Hayes maintains. “It’s clean, reliable and cheap. </span>

<span>”The Environmental Protection Agency has the opportunity to improve air quality and our economy, in one fell swoop.”</span>

<span>She adds that energy-efficient technologies in the EPA plan have already been tried and tested, and many states have already adopted them in some form.</span>