This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The good news is, people worried that air quality and public health could suffer as a result of the planned expansion of the Tesoro refinery in Salt Lake City now have until June 7 to raise objections to that project.

The bad news is, the mere fact that the public comment period has been extended matters little, given that state laws new and old make it all but impossible for anyone to hold either the refinery's owners or state monitors to any standards other than those set a long time ago and far, far away.

Despite their usual whining about how the federal government holds too much power, Utah lawmakers have long forbidden state agencies from setting down air quality standards more stringent than those established by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Because even the altered Tesoro plant's emissions will still be well under the EPA-set caps for emissions such as nitrous oxide, soot and various volatile organic compounds, all the Department of Environmental Quality can do is hold up that measuring stick and ink up its rubber stamp.

Fears that Salt Lake County's atmosphere, with smog so thick that it has been given a grade of "F" by the American Lung Association, can't take even a small increase in pollutants are not allowed to enter into the equation.

Placing real controls on big-time polluters is made even more difficult by a new Utah law, Sen. Margaret Dayton's SB11. That statute places the burden of establishing scientific or engineering reasons why a permit should not be granted squarely on the shoulders of any opponents. Not only that, opponents have to raise, and document, their objections within the limited public comment periods set by law.

So in order to have standing to challenge the Tesoro plans, or any other project, environmental groups, concerned citizens and worried parents are placed in the position of having to not only raise their concerns, but document them, in short order.

This is a burden that is likely to be well beyond the abilities of the real people who don't have engineering degrees, scientific credentials or anything more than concerns about what nasty chemicals might be found in the air that they, and their children, breathe every day.

In a proper system, it would be professional staff in the employ of the state that would not only raise objections, but document and support them with detailed filings.

But that won't happen in Utah, where state government is prohibited from doing any governing that might interfere with the wishes of polluting industries.