Amanda Smith: Balancing Utah's Energy Options.

• Author: Whitesides, Hilary Ingoldsby
• Position: Around Utah

Wherever in Utah you find environmental and energy policy, you're sure to find Amanda Smith. Serving in not one but two state positions, Smith is striving to create balance as the state faces energy choices with long-lasting implications.

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Smith, who has served as the executive director of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality since 2009, was recently appointed to also serve as Gov. Gary R. Herbert's energy policy advisor. By all accounts, she is a perfect fit for both positions. Smith previously served as legislative director for Gov. Jon Huntsman and as the government relations director of The Nature Conservancy. She currently serves on the Bureau of Land Management Resource Advisory Council.

On the top of Smith's long to-do list is the task of organizing the Office of Energy Development, which will play a crucial role in Herbert's recently announced 10-year energy initiative for the state. Along with the initiative, she is working on identifying tangible energy solutions.

"Every resource has its own challenge," Smith says. "It becomes a personal and societal issue of where you can give and take. Landscape, air quality, land use--development of any energy resource has an impact on one or more of those things."

Not many people could juggle two jobs, travel an average of three times a month...