Politicians and Pollution

Politicians at every level play a huge role in solving or not solving our environmental problems, especially our air pollution. There is currently a controversy over some SLC mayoral candidates attacking each other over the idea of whether we could, or should, try and move any or all of the refineries, which represent probably the largest industrial source of pollution in the heart of the Wasatch Front.

To those that say this can’t be done, note that Mexico moved the largest oil refinery in their country out of the heart of Mexico City to a remote location, just to clean up their air.

Without getting into specific candidates, we can say that our pollution is such a big problem, it requires big ideas and thinking outside the box. Regarding moving the refineries, why not formally and thoroughly study whether that is feasible? If Utah has enough money to move the prison, provide hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to build more freeways, the dirty energy inland port, and the dirty energy Uinta Railway (all of which will make our air pollution even worse), why can’t we find any real money to clean up our air? It’s a matter of priorities. Clean air is the most important asset we could provide to protect and improve public health. But the economic benefits of clean air on the Wasatch Front would also be worth–billions. [Read More]