Governor wants tweaks after signing controversial power bill [Video]

SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox said he will sign a controversial bill that allows the state to take over a massive power plant in central Utah, but he wants to call the legislature into a special session to make changes.

Senate Bill 161 would basically allow the state to take over the coal plant at Intermountain Power Project near Delta. The giant facility supplies the bulk of its electricity to California, but 23 Utah cities also take some power from it. The plant has been slowly moving away from coal to more environmentally-friendly sources of energy in multi-billion dollar investments.

That apparently has not sat well with members of the Utah State Legislature, who have argued that the state needs reliable forms of energy and coal is a part of that. This year, lawmakers passed a series of bills on Utah’s energy portfolio that propped up coal even as the energy …