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Utah
Editorial: Action Needed Now to Clean Up Salt Lake City Air
Since Utah air quality officials ''chafed'' at inclusion of the Salt Lake City and Logan statistical areas among the 10 most affected by short-term particle pollution, which the American Lung Association (ALA) described as '' a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols,'' a Salt Lake Tribune editorial tells them that ''instead of being defensive, we need to be proactive, innovative and dedicated to solve our pollution problems, at every level of government, and in every single home.''
Calling the ALA rating bad for Utah tourism, economic development, quality of life and public health, the editorial agrees that the region's air ''is not as dirty as it was decades ago'' -- due to cleaner vehicles, fewer smokestacks, and expanded transit -- and that the Department of Environmental Quality and Republican Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. ''are working diligently'' to meet federal air quality standards and prevent the loss of federal transportation funds.
Nevertheless, ''our dirty little secret'' about basin-choking pollution during temperature inversions ''is out,'' the editorial says, holding all responsible for remedies.
''The federal government should make air quality standards increasingly more stringent, further boost vehicle-fuel efficiency standards, sink more money into renewable energy and alternative fuels, and provide incentives and funding for clean-burning vehicles.''
Governor Huntsman should set up ''a special air pollution task force'' to find solutions, with everything on the table -- gas-guzzler taxes, a road construction moratorium, free public transit, freeway tolls and congestion pricing, strict industrial and tailpipe emission laws, fuel-efficiency tax breaks, and rapid conversion of the state fleet to hybrids.
Counties and municipalities should ''stop the sprawl that necessitates long commutes by adopting smart-growth standards, including steep impact fees for new homes and businesses, and land-use ordinances that favor transit-oriented development.''
And residents, too, must play a role, the editorial stresses, urging them to learn about what they can do at www.cleanair.utah.gov and to tell ''national, state and local leaders to act now and get creative.'' -- Salt Lake Tribune 5/3/2008
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