This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Seven state agencies have rejected efforts by a group of Utah teens and environmental advocates to force action on climate change — including a rebuff Wednesday by the Utah Air Quality Board.
But the lawyer for 19 Utahns who are part of the nationwide "iMatter" climate campaign said the push to address the pollution blamed for climate change will continue.
"Certainly we want to move forward," said attorney Jamie Pleune, noting the petition has started a lively discussion that some officials seem interested in continuing.
But she also lamented that, with time running out to deal with rising greenhouse gases, there is no commitment to act now.
"I think it's hard," she said, "for anybody to take action on something that's not on their to-do list."
Pleune and many of her clients asked members of the Air Quality Board to begin weaving greenhouse-gas controls into state regulation. They tried to persuade board members Wednesday that many of the air-quality regulations already under review would go hand-in-hand with measures to cut fossil fuel emissions.
Kathy Albury told how she became a petitioner on behalf of her grandsons, including the 5-year-old who asks whether it's a "red" air-quality day that would prevent him from going outside to play.
"You are guardians of this precious resource we are breathing," she said, urging the panel to support greenhouse-gas pollution controls.
But an air-quality division staff report on the proposal — to inventory greenhouse gases emitted in Utah and develop a plan to reduce them by about 6 percent a year — said the state is already hard-pressed to get its current workload done. The division simply doesn't have the resources to perform the requested inventory of greenhouse gases and develop a plan to reduce those emissions by the amount the petitioners requested, said the division's regulatory branch manager, Dave McNeil.
"I'm telling you," he said to the board, "I do not have the staff to do this right now."
In addition, board members said their practice was to get guidance — and funding — from the Legislature to tackle new regulations. Board member H. Craig Peterson, a Cache County commissioner, said climate was an issue better addressed by the federal government and that the politics of climate in Utah could mean any board efforts to deal with climate could backfire without the support of lawmakers "and deter a solution rather than enhance a solution."
The petitioners have a few options, including appealing the decision, going to court or seeking support from the Legislature, which has traditionally been hostile to efforts to address climate change.
Pleune also said she had a stack of rejection letters from the other state agencies the group had petitioned for administrative action: Gov. Gary Herbert's office, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Utah Public Service Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Agriculture and Food, and the Department of Health. She has yet to hear from the Division of Water Resources.
A similar petition was rejected last month by the Montana Supreme Court.
More information
O See the original petition.
> extras.sltrib.com/iMatterPetition.pdf