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California was once a major producer of oil and gas. Much of it is still there, if it is wanted.
Storing water in open reservoirs in the Mojave desert is asinine. Evaporation rates are extremely high, 96 inches per year -- like trying to store water in a sieve. These kinds of water battery schemes are best reserved for locations with hills, plenty of water and low evaporation rates -- like the Appalachias or the Cascades.
The IPP plant near Delta, Utah is slowly shutting down, after partner California municipalities withdrew due to imposed CO2 restrictions. Very little real emissions from its smokestack, other than water vapor and CO2, formerly the gold standard in combustion efficiency. Coal producers impacted by its probable closure have a ready market in Asia, but activists are blocking transshipment in Vancouver, Wash. and Oakland.
I have mixed feelings about the coal industry here. I don't mind the mines themselves (nearly all are underground) or the coal trains and powerplants, but coal trucks are the scourge of US89.
There is a lot of deep coal under the high plateaus. Some of the seams are over 400 ft. thick. You can't mine it with current technology, but in situ pyrolisis (or underground coal gasification, UCG) is a possibility. A proposal was made a few years ago to revisit development of the Kaiparowits reserves using UCG. It would certainly be better than slurry pipelines or coal trucks driving by every 6 minutes, 24/7/365.
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