The evolving nature of the nation’s energy picture reached a milestone recently when the government reported that the use of renewable energy sources has climbed to levels not seen since the 1930s, when wood burning accounted for almost all renewable fuel use. Now, it is solar, wind and biomass energy, which are growing at a remarkable rate and will continue to account for a larger share of the overall market.

This is news that should be warmly greeted by those concerned over the impact of nonrenewable energy on the environment and climate. But the debate over energy policy too often devolves into an “either-or” discussion in which no matter how much more fossil-fuel energy we displace with sun or wind, for some, it’s too little, too late.

Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s national director, said while touring Utah recently that the state is doing “very little” to encourage renewable energy development while continuing to rush to develop fossil fuels. “It is tragic,” Brune told the Deseret News.

The real tragedy is the inability of some environmentalist groups to look objectively at data that indisputably shows an inexorable march toward development of renewable energy in Utah and nationally, with a commensurate de-escalation of investment in fossil fuels in both private and public sectors.

For example, the Utah Energy Office cites multibillion-dollar investments in the next 18 months in Utah in development of solar energy. In San Juan County, a 61-megawatt wind farm will begin producing electricity this year. A consortium of state and federal agencies has formed the Utah Biomass Resources Group, which says Utah is poised to harvest 45 million tons of “green energy” in the next five years.

These are no small-potato projects. In aggregate, investment in renewable energy will shortly come to dwarf new investment in coal, gas and oil resources. This is a trend that environmentalists and conservation groups should roundly applaud. In the real world, there will not come a time when, on a Tuesday, we can shut off all the lights powered by fossil fuel and turn them back on Wednesday with renewable energy. A transition to cleaner energy will come slowly, but the salient fact is that it is coming. In Utah, renewable energy not associated with hydroelectric generation will account for 15 percent of the state’s capacity by the end of the year. By 2025, it will grow to 25 percent.

It’s important to note that not all environmentalist organizations are seeing this as a glass half-empty. An organization called E2, or Environmental Entrepreneurs, an affiliate of the Natural Resources Defense Council, ranked Utah as one of the top 10 states for clean-energy job creation. A recent report by the group documents the quarterly creation of 9,800 jobs nationally — 300 of which are in Utah. These jobs are associated with clean energy and clean transportation projects.

The drive toward renewable energy is a dynamic transition that will continue and should be abetted by appropriate government policies and incentives. Now, an unbiased reading of objective data proves that Utah’s energy policies have the state squarely in place to take on a significant role in that transition.