Not everyone shared Strong's opinion. Tim DeChristopher, a student at the University of Utah and awaiting trial for disruption of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) auctions last winter, opposed Strong by saying that agri-businesses would suffer at the hands of deep pocket energy developers and were not in a financial position to fight the changes. DeChristopher stated that the change in water rights would leave agriculture abandoned and would negatively impact rural communities.

Dr. Laura Nelson, Chair of the Utah Mining Association made statements to the committee that reduced the water requirements for crude oil extraction from shale from 6 barrels of water per barrel of oil to 1.5 barrels through the use of modern technologies. She compared the making of a t-shirt to that of crude oil extraction in an attempt to show that the water requirements for mining are not that great.

Aaron Tilton, former state legislator and present CEO for Transition Power Development LLC said that nuclear power was a water wise use of water for energy production. He went on to say that present technologies require approximately 55,000 acre feet of water to cool a 3,000 megawatt reactor and he had obtained 30,000 acre feet presently.