This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah's ratepayers need protection! They are under attack by the EPA and their own hot water heaters and automobiles! Fortunately, wolves halloweening as sheep are here to "help" Utah's families.
Sponsored by our alleged local champions of corporate environmental stewardship, Rocky Mountain Power and Tesoro, the Governor's Symposium on Utah Air and Energy tackled energy efficiency and air quality on "behalf" of the emissions-breathing people of the state. Instead of launching a meaningful public inquiry into complex technical, environmental, economic and social policy issues affecting the health of industry and individuals, conference organizers skimmed the surface. While Utah's affordable energy policies ensure that when we turn on the switch, the lights go on, the light never fully went on in Hilton's Ballroom about how to solve problems we all create by having lights in the first place. Industry and government representatives assured participants that environmental protection and economic development do not have to be a "zero-sum" game. But the policies and economics underlying clean air and energy production must be analyzed in their specificity, not pitted against each other like some modern day Cain and Abel story. If serious about solutions, Utah must evolve a climate of tolerance so we can understand the values and morality underlying our beliefs and policy-driven choices, including their impacts on communities, industry and government.
The chicken and egg dilemma circle is a more helpful way to storyboard air and energy in Utah. Reliable, affordable energy is a key requirement for a healthy economy. A healthy economy brings new workers. The governor's office predicts Utah's population will expand by 1 million oxygen-consuming people in the next 15 years. These future ratepayers will need jobs, homes, shopping centers, office parks, schools, and, of course, new light bulbs (and other energy draining commodities) so they can feel content with their lives. So here is the chicken and egg question: How do you responsibly plan for social change while preserving business as usual? Strong economic development and environmental protection leadership suggests you can't. You need to step on the accelerator to stick and carrot change, placing intentionally deferred air quality compliance, pollution and remediation costs more on utility corporate shareholders than ratepayers. This is not Utah's current direction.
At the symposium, Rocky Mountain Power proposed that Utah STEP (Sustainable Transportation and Energy Plan) in a different direction. It rolled out a corporate plan to cut consumer pollution, with a tip-of-the-hat to curtailing its own. Shifting the audience's attention away from its polluting practices, RMP announced that it will enhance air quality by providing incentives for electric vehicles, as if this social generosity compensates for the coal fueled power plants into which the vehicles will plug. Taking a STEP back, just exactly how is this reducing RMP's nitrous oxide emissions?
Many of the presenters praised the governor and the symposium for the spirit of cooperation in Utah as being greater than in any other state. Apparently, none of the presenters viewed legitimate community-based organizations that actually speak for consumers, such as HEAL, Utah Moms for Clean Air, Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment, as relevant to the discussion. When it comes to clean air and energy, Utah's leadership should recall our pioneer's heritage of independence, freedom and self-determination. If government and industry believe that the goal of cleaner air and energy can be achieved, it is time to throw off the costumes and engage in a truly transparent, collaborative and inclusive process that builds community-based concerns into concrete solutions.
Utah can be both No. 1 for business and No. 1 for the environment. Anyone who says or promotes anything else is just playing their own "zero-sum" game.
Marc Weinreich is a court-appointed environmental response trustee for government and industry, overseeing the cleanup of hundreds of sites nationwide.