George Orwell, in his book “1984,” told of a dystopian world where “up is down, black is white and two plus two equals five…”
Our Legislature has decided to take a page from his book with their latest position on burning coal.
While the rest of the West is working toward reducing the burning of coal, our illustrious den of climate change deniers has decided to intervene in the marketplace and force our electrical utility to burn more coal. Their reasoning? “We want to protect our citizens!”
In spite of the fact that our utilities are working toward converting to cleaner energy sources and converting power plants to natural gas, and in spite of the fact that our valleys sometimes contain the most polluted (and dangerous) air in the world, and in spite of the fact that coal is likely the most polluting of all fossil fuels whose emissions are damaging to our health, the state has chosen to burn more of it “to protect us.” Because in their world, “down is up, good is bad, and two plus two is five,”
Time and time again our Legislature has demonstrated what appears to be one of its overriding tenets: “Profits before people, every time!”
And Utahns continue to put them in office in an Orwellian march to insanity. (Sure hope the Legislature doesn’t decide to ban Orwell’s book — or have the already?)
Bill Forbes, Bountiful
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