This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the June 1 Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee applauded Donald Trump's decision to remove the USA from the Paris climate accord. This agreement has been designed to lower gaseous carbon emissions across the planet. The two Utah senators suggest that the withdrawal of the United States from this accord will be good for the American economy.
The senators' arguments are based solely upon the projected (certainly not clearly demonstrated) increase in jobs the American withdrawal would produce. They are short-sighted. There is no certainty in projecting increased jobs. Many experts argue that jobs will actually decrease, as renewable energy is the path of the future.
Beyond this argument, and most important, Utah's two senators have no concept of "true costs." To put this simply, the short-term gains from fossil-fuel-fired jobs will be short-lived and carry a large "external costs."
Such external costs, fueled by increasing carbon gases released to the atmosphere, include ocean level increase (think of Miami and Manhattan partially submerged), huge expenses to attempt to protect our shoreline developments, substantial increase and encroachment into mainland America of warm-climate diseases and parasites, dramatic changes in climate to our "bread basket" regions that will diminish food crop production, rapid ecosystem shifts, increased occurrence of huge storms (as we are already seeing) and energy instability as fossil fuels become even more expensive and unavailable.
I am dismayed by the sloppiness of the Utah senators' thinking. I have believed those elected to a high position in American government should be bright, informed, share a long view of the future and have more to offer than banalities.
Sens. Hatch and Lee, you ought to hire some advisers who know the landscape of the future. It may be time you joined the 21st century.
Sam Rushforth
Orem