Letters to Editors 1983-2018

Incredible! It’s taken this long to address power needs in an area already known for substantial renewable energy resources – both solar PV and wind. Surely some of that geothermal ‘fluctuation’ and the growth in demand could have been at least partly accommodate with more local power generation. Electricity generation and delivery in this 21st Century needs to be based on multiple, ideally local, sources, means of storage, a systems approach to demand and generation management, and a more resilient approach to delivery. Why do we have power company officials and County Commissioners who do not insist on and advocate for less traditional and less cumbersome solutions?

Clearly all applications for Federal action should be handled competently, efficiently, and expeditiously. And clearly there are improvements to be made. But… what is the point of approving thousands of drilling permits when we know that nearly all fossil fuel reserves need to remain exactly where they are – in the ground. We have already exceeded the tolerable level of CO2 in our atmosphere, according to nearly all measures and models. We need to get beyond fossil fuels. As Princess Elsa might say – “let them go…” And even if you are oblivious to the climate change issue, the BLM doesn’t have the budget to inspect and regulate existing wells, raising a wide range of health and other environmental concerns. Until they have the budget and staff to inspect and regulate drilling and production of existing wells and leases, there should be a moratorium on new permits, new approvals, new leases. Savvy investors and financiers are already leaving – and divesting from – fossil fuel-based industries. They are putting their money into 21st Century energy and resource activities. Those continuing to invest in fossil fuels will eventually – and hopefully – lose their shirts – and more.

Thanks Mr. Stewart, for reading the headline of my Coal MyView piece published June 15. Although you read the headline, you apparently didn’t read the content of the piece. Fortunately most of the other commenters here have noted the shortcomings and misleading nature of your words. Coal can never be ‘clean’; it will always release CO2 and a wide range of trace elements and other toxic constituents. The only practical way of sequestering CO2 is to feed it to growing algae or plants. The best way to sequester it is to leave it right where it is, in the ground. You say “there may very well be a day when coal’s role in energy production is diminished.” Yes, and that day is today, as your Energy Summit keynote speaker so clearly stated. Were you there, listening? Herbert was. The time is now to work with our fossil fuel counties to move on. Where are the state incentives and programs to get beyond coal? Where is the Governor’s vision for a 21st Century economy for Utah? These are not partisan issues. These are health, environment, and economic issues. Thanks for reading – and thinking.

Rep. Ken Ivory asks “Why the difference?” in his June 17 MyView printed in the Deseret News June 17.

Oils derived from shale and tar sands are marginal fuels and rapidly becoming economically non-viable. Savvy investors are already pulling out of such investments, as well as coal. There is now great concern that natural gas derived via fracking may be committing to its own suicide by allowing extensive methane leaks and by tolerating inadequate inspection and oversight.

Why the difference? TIME. We are now in a 21st Century with severe environmental, population, economic, and governmental problems. The enabling act language was based on 18th and 19th century assumptions about vastness, lack of constraints, the desirability of growth. The land and air are no longer vast, we need to begin to operate under some constraints (we engineers call them ‘boundary conditions’), and we can no longer accept unlimited growth. In addition Utah is governed by a Legislature and Governor who subscribe to a 19th Century, hard-wired, ideological mentality that is no longer relevant – and indeed is very dangerous – to societal and national survival in the 21st Century. We cannot afford to permit such a Legislature and Governor to have any authority over now-Federal lands, for fear that the state would mis-manage and degrade such lands. It is your (and my) kids and grandkids who will most suffer those consequences. Talk with (not to) your kids – they understand.

Population is indeed a world issue and a local issue. Utah is planning on a doubling of its population in the next 25 or so years, about 75% of that due to our very high birth rate.

At the Governor’s recent Energy Development Summit, his energy advisor, Cody Stewart said ‘We like big families here.’ and then showed a cartoon video of a family with 8 kids. That’s big! Each kid will want a house, a car, a job, and other amenities – and most will want to live on or very near the Wasatch Front.

Urban Utah is already partially asphyxiated in the winter months; we are now seeing severe air pollution and health issues in the Uinta Basin, as well.

There are limits, constraints – what engineers call boundary conditions.

Kids are wonderful. We love them. But we also need to be responsible. It is OK to Plan. Small families are fine – as well as bigger ones.

World Vasectomy Day is Oct. 17. Real men get snipped!

Thanks to Randy Miller and the Independent Voters groups for working on the open primaries initiatives. Readers should also note that there are many non-party (unaffiliated) candidates on the ballot in November: Bill Barron, US Congress, District 2; Ben Mates and one other, US Congress, District 3; and perhaps others. Unaffiliated candidates bring fresh voices and perspectives as they are not bound to the rigid platforms of the 2 major parties.

And Congratulations to Jeff Hatch for County Auditor. One election down, one to go!

Yes! Major development and endowment funds, including State Retirement, Higher Education institutions, TIAA-CREF, religious institutions, and others should all divest from fossil fuels. It is the prudent and most risk-aversive action to take. And it sends a message that Utah cares about its air, water, lands, health, and overall quality of life.

Assumptions, ideologies, Carbon County — and Princess Elsa

I am constantly amazed by assumptions which are never stated — implicit assumptions — so ingrained that they’ve become ideologies. Here are some examples from the pulpit of the recent Governor’s Energy Development Summit:

Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and energy adviser Cody Stewart spoke of “clean coal” and “clean-burning coal.” There is no such thing.

Burning coal produces heat and releases large quantities of CO2. That’s how it “works.” Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere is heating the planet. That’s how global warming works. And global warming drives climate change and our new climate chaos.

Even if we could successfully sequester the CO2 (which is really only feasible via feeding it to algae or plants), nearly the entire Periodic Table of the Elements is in coal and shale — and, upon combustion or other processing, those elements are released into the air, water or ash. And that includes the full range of very toxic elements. Even very good and efficient combustion and controls still release large quantities of toxic particulates. The particles and the toxic elements are key components of the air quality problem. Combusting (or liquifying or gasifying) coal can, therefore, never be “clean” — and oil shale is just as bad.

As Princess Elsa said in “Frozen,” “Let it go!”

The Energy Summit’s keynote speaker was Ted Nordhaus — with the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, Calif. The Breakthrough Institute now advocates natural gas and nuclear power and argues against using coal. I watched Gov. Herbert’s somewhat strained face as his invited speaker spoke about climate change, CO2, and the death of coal — in a forum which has almost never had these words spoken from the major podium.

Nordhaus simply expressed the new reality — the current cost-benefit analysis — already playing out in the energy markets. His institute’s recent report titled “Coal Killer” outlines that new reality.

So the governor should also “let it go.” Let coal go, and oil shale, too. These fuels are not in Utah’s best interests. Ditto for Lt. Gov. Cox and energy adviser Stewart. Our new reality is becoming well understood, especially by those in the energy and resource markets. It’s not Obama or the EPA that’s killing coal. It’s natural gas and the new renewables.

The governor and his lieutenant — and their energy adviser — need to work with legislators from Carbon, Uintah, Duchesne and Emery counties to move beyond coal, shale and tar sands. The governor should be leading that transition, not denying it. We need to direct state resources, perhaps including some from a carbon fee, into initiatives and investments in an economy and jobs which go beyond coal, and well beyond coal-fueled power plants. And we need to stop developing fuels which are even worse than coal in terms of air and planetary pollution. That’s all the oil shales and tar sands.

We sometimes wonder why our youth aren’t paying attention to us, nor reading newspapers. Perhaps it’s because they are tired of hearing ideologies, obsolete assumptions and reality denial. Most of them know better. Maybe that’s why they love Princess Elsa: “Let it go!”

Joe Andrade is a retired professor of engineering at University of Utah. He ran for Congress in 2012 as an independent and was one of the people involved in the planning and development of The Leonardo.

It’s not too few babies, it’s not immigration, it’s not Obama.

It’s because we are now in a 21st Century and operating with the expectation that our 19th and early 20th Century ingrained, hard-wired assumptions are still valid. They are not. We no longer have nearly infinite land, air, and other resources. Earth is one small planet with over 7B and moving to 9B people.

Our economy is in a tough transition from a constant growth economy (essential a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme economy) to a resource-sustainable economy. Many of the younger generation get that and are already in transition. The older – and the oldest – will have a more difficult time. That includes nearly all conventional (growth-oriented) economists, legislators, Governors, and even Presidents.

As long as we look to growth for the ‘solution’, we’ll be disappointed. We have to get beyond those assumptions and that mentality.

The kids get it. Talk with them. Good luck.

Natural gas is committing its own suicide – by discouraging regulation, inspection, and compliance; by insisting on more leases and more wells without the infrastructure to assure they are done properly. The existing gas infrastructure is leaking large amounts of methane – in the range of 10% of total methane removed and released. Methane is far worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. So not only is coal being ‘killed’ by natural gas due to coal’s own greenhouse and air pollution problems, the natural gas industry – and all those anti-climate change politicians it funds – is inadvertently designing the death of natural gas – by self-inflicted suicide. Because as soon as we fully realize just how bad the natural gas infrastructure is, there will be major actions and protests to shut it all down. Then where will we be?

Why is the State Office of Oil and Gas Mining, the Utah BLM, the Governor – not advocating for full inspection and regulation? They should all be supporting the tightening and implementation of regs to greatly decrease methane leaks and emissions.

The best solution (the ‘free’ market!) is a fat fee on all carbon sources (including all the leaked methane) with most of the revenues returned to all taxpayers – per capita – that’s the citizensclimatelobby fee and dividend plan. Look it up

Yes! And the way to minimize adverse impact on the poor and un- or under-employed is the citizensclimatelobby carbon fee and dividend proposals: no new government revenues; increased cost of carbon-based fuels and products – thus stimulating substitutes, new technologies, new businesses; improved air quality and thus a healthier population. Look it up. It’s a win-win, except for middle class hummer and big pick-up owner-drivers.

And ask your kids about Princess Elsa – ‘Let it Go!’ Let fossil fuels go – keep them in the ground, safely sequestered.

Thanks to Randy Miller for this op-ed – and the national group Independent Voter. We do need a way for independents to have their voice heard in and during the primary process.

Nearly half of Utahans claim to be independent, many of those don’t vote at all. There are many independent, unaffiliated candidates who get on the ballot via a signature petition. Ben Mates is such a candidate, running for Congress in District 3 – against Rep. Chaffetz and others. Bill Barron is running in District 2 against mr. right wing climate and science denier Chris Stewart. Bill ran as an independent for Senate 2 years ago – against the elder Mr. Hatch. I ran as an independent 2 years ago, in District 2. My experience is available as a short, free e-book called The RUN – you can find it on line.

Although the odds are stacked against independents or unaffiliated candidates winning, they play a key role in raising issues and positions often ignored by the two major party candidates, who generally pander to what they think the voters want to hear. Leaders need to lead, not pander. Most independents try to lead. They should be far better known and supported.

The first half of your recent editorial “Weighing costs against benefits, in Utah and around the nation, necessary for sound energy development,” (June 5) was promising — until this sentence:

“Utah’s abundant reserves of shale oil and coal can continue to provide an environmentally acceptable burning of fossil fuels that will remain necessary.”

That’s like telling our kids to “do the right” but then letting them “do the wrong.” The problem is that such fuels produce much larger amounts of CO2 than natural gas. They also produce air polluting particulates and toxic element emissions.

There is nothing “environmentally acceptable” about burning fossil fuels — and it does not “remain necessary” to burn them — especially coal.

I am constantly amazed by assumptions, which are never stated implicitly, yet become so ingrained that they are now considered ideologies.

Some examples from the pulpit of the Governor’s Energy Development Summit include:

Lt. Governor Cox and Energy Advisor Stewart spoke “clean coal” and “clean-burning coal.” There is no such thing. Burning coal produces heat and releases CO2. Increasing CO2 in the atmosphere is heating the planet — that’s how global warming works. Even if you could successfully sequester the CO2 (which is really only feasible via feeding it to algae or plants), nearly the entire Periodic Table of the Elements is in coal and shale — and, upon combustion or other processing, is released into the air, water or ash — and that includes a variety of very toxic elements. Even good, efficient combustion and controls still release large quantities of toxic particulates. The particles and the toxic elements are key components of the air quality problem. Combusting (or liquefying or gasifying) coal can, therefore, never be clean.

The Energy Summit’s keynote speaker was Ted Nordhaus, an environmental policy expert and the chairman of The Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, California. The Breakthrough Institute now advocates natural gas and nuclear power and argues against using coal. I watched Gov. Herbert’s somewhat strained face as his invited speaker spoke about climate change, CO2 and the death of coal — in a forum which has almost never had these words spoken from the major podium.

The recent editorial suggested cost-benefit analyses. Nordhaus basically expressed the new reality — the current cost-benefit analysis — already playing out in the energy markets. His institute’s recent report, “Coal Killer” (referring to natural gas) outlines that new reality.

The Governor should let coal go — unless he wants to be perceived as an 18th century holdover. Lt. Gov. Cox and Energy Advisor Cody Stewart need to do the same. Our new reality is becoming well understood, especially by those in the energy and resource markets. It’s not Obama or the EPA that’s killing coal, it’s natural gas and the new renewables.

The Deseret News should also “choose the right” and not continue to suggest “environmentally acceptable burning of fossil fuels.”

Joe Andrade is a retired professor of engineering, from University of Utah. He has worked as a scientist, engineer and educator. He attended the 2014 Governor’s Energy Development Summit.

In my opinion, it’s not belief in a spiritual force (‘god’) that’s the problem. The problem is when that belief becomes religion – with ‘sacred’ texts, dogma, and collective nonrationality.

I also think that you either think critically, rationally, objectively – or you do not. You can’t really say ‘religion, on the one hand – and science, on the other.’

Read my little e-book, The CALL – there’s a short discussion of the ‘belief spectrum’ in it – it’s free.

Editor,

There was some real entertainment at the Utah Governor’s 2014 Energy Development Summit last week.

His energy advisor, Cody Stewart, showed a cute animation video on Utah’s energy development efforts. It’s less than three minutes. See it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbI2d-33iaY

Note that it’s from the Utah Office of Energy Development. It was called the Utah Energy Office in earlier administrations.

One of the reasons for Utah’s aggressive energy development is “We like big families here!” And then ‘big family’ is defined in the family diagram (about one minute and 15 seconds in) as mother, father, and eight kids (I didn’t see if the mother stick figure is pregnant). And then a bit later it says, we need to do aggressive energy development because we’re going to double Utah’s population in 30 years – another 2.5 million people.

So much for a recent small families campaign (It’s OK to plan) by the Utah Population and Environment Coalition (UPEC).

No mention in the video of the methane leaks and VOC emissions in the Uintah Basin – and the growing environmental and health problems east of the State Capitol. No mention of the crappy and dangerous air along Utah’s Wasatch Front in winter months. No mention that the health problems caused by breathing that polluted air can’t even be treated for many Utahns, because the governor and the state legislature refuse to accept Obamacare.

No mention that one of the largest protests in Utah history occurred last January 25 at the State Capitol, during a freezing and really bad air day urging the governor and the state legislature to do something about air pollution. They didn’t.

A video with no mention of any of our major problems.

But energy development will solve everything, it says. It will provide revenues for education. It will provide ‘high paying’ jobs and thus taxes.

No mention of Utah’s deteriorating quality of life, due largely to energy development and unbridled growth (“We like big families here.”)

But we know how to make – misleading – cute animated videos. Brilliant.

Joe Andrade

Salt Lake City

Another positive report attesting to Governor Herbert’s leadership, vision, pragmatism, and wisdom.

The report – and the Des News story – ignores that we are last in public education funding, and have fallen even further behind.

We have among the worst air quality in the nation along the Wasatch Front during winter months and greatly deteriorating air quality in the Uintah Basin due largely to the volatile hydrocarbons and related emissions from the thousands of wells there.

We are a growing market for Ob-Gyns to help with pollution-related pregnancy and new-born issues. We are a growing market for pulmonologists and respiratory therapists for the many Utahns impacted by our horrible Wasatch Front winter air. Health gets worse – and no Obamacare $$ to help. Brilliant!

We are the last in the 11 Western states in electrical energy derived from renewables, and we’re #1 in the proportion derived from coal.

We’re friendly to industry and business. We give them tax breaks to develop, we under regulate, we under police them, and we are in denial of all the problems they impose on our residents.

Utah – Life Polluted!

Utah – the greyest snow on Earth.

We’re #1 for business and industry.

Congratulations!

Thank you, Mary Barker, Barry Bickmore, and the many others doing what they can to bring some sense and action to the problem.

The good news is that most of the kids – the youth – understand. They may keep quiet, but they are tired of hearing ideologies, obsolete assumptions, and reality denial from their parents, many of their teachers, many of their bishops and priests, and most of our state so-called leaders. The kids know better – they’ll come through.

Keep up the good work.

Dan – were you even at the Summit?

Did you hear the keynote address by Nordhaus? Did you watch Herbert’s face as Nordhaus talked?

Most of the renewable work going on is in spite of the Governor, not because of him or his ‘Energy’ Office. He and the Office are focused on the filthiest fossil fuels. That includes gas via tracking – because there are very high methane leakages, making Utah gas really no better for the greenhouse problem than coal itself.

And talk with the Ob-Gyn’s in the Uintah Basin – and the pulmonologists along the Wasatch Front.

Which sandpile has your head been in?

The keynote speaker at the Governor’s Energy Development Summit last Wednesday, Ted Nordhaus, expressed a new reality – the current cost-benefit analysis already playing out in the energy markets. His Institute’s recent report titled Coal Killer outlines that new reality, now well understood by those in the energy and resource markets. It’s not Obama or the EPA that’s killing coal – it’s natural gas and the new renewables.

So the Governor should (in the words of Princess Elsa) ‘let it go’ – let coal go – and oil shale, too. These fuels are not in Utah’s best interests. Carbon County – and all of Eastern Utah – need to move beyond coal, shale, and tar sands. And the Governor should be leading that transition, not denying it. He – and the Legislature – and local leaders – should be directing state resources into initiatives and investments in an economy and jobs which go beyond coal – and coal-fueled power plants.

A CALL should be personal, self-chosen, uplifting. There are many opportunities for service – to Church, community, society, and Planet. The importance of developing YOUR own foundation, and finding your own CALL – or Calls, is discussed in The CALL – a short, free, e-book ‘…for teens and others to take control of their life and work.’ It’s at 2andradedotorg .

Thanks for thinking on your own!

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.

That’s why Wyoming opposes the guidelines on teaching climate change.

It has little to do with facts, or critical thinking, or the future of the state’s children. It has everything to do with jobs and economy, right now — jobs, and an economy, which will likely go bust within the decade.

Fossil fuels–all of them–are doomed, because mankind is largely doomed unless we rapidly slow down and stop burning fossil fuels. A robust and rapidly increasing, carbon fee will be enacted soon, and then all those marginally economically viable fossil fuel “resources” will be economically non-viable. And the bust will begin … again.

Your kids know that, your politicians know that, you know that. Admit it, and plan for a real future. Your kids deserve some reality, vision, and planning from their parents, teachers and leaders.

And read Sinclair’s “The Jungle.”

Our very bad air is getting worse – with every tanker truck hauling marginal crude ‘oil’ from Eastern Utah to the Tesoro and other refineries in North Salt Lake: 250 trucks/day – each hauling over 8,000 gallons, and all being refined and processed locally.

Why not vent the refinery stacks into the lobby of the State Capitol? That might get some Legislature and Governor attention. It has to stop. We don’t ‘need’ that oil; we don’t need refineries in the SL Valley; we don’t ‘need’ – and certainly don’t want – that kind of economic ‘development’.

A simple fee on carbon would help – and greatly stimulate the economy at the same time.

Sub-Headline: Would Pipeline be the Answer? NO.

and trucks aren’t the answer either.

The answer is to STOP hauling low quality, marginal, viscous crude into the SL Valley.

As SLC’s Jeff Niermeyer said ‘…look at refining it somewhere else.’

Expanding the local refineries (and the truck traffic) to handle that marginal crude just makes the Valley’s bad air quality worse.

And a pipeline is not the answer, because it will just contribute to the growing bad air quality by encouraging the refineries to expand even more.

Stop the flow.

We don’t need that ‘oil’.

We just need some aware, enlightened, and gutsy leadership.

Some may hope and wish otherwise – and lobby and work against carbon fees – but the fees will eventually come because they are really the only economically viable way to get our economy and culture to wean itself from its fossil fuel addiction.

There will likely be a significant carbon fee or tax imposed on all sources, leakages, and uses of fossil carbon-based fuels and products. They will probably start off small and ramp up rapidly, with the goal of phasing out most fossil fuel use over the next 5 to 20 years – to avoid further cooking of the planet. Cutting our addiction to fossil fuels will also greatly improve air quality and health.

It’s going to happen – the sooner the better.

The recent “Sego Canyon road: Path to prosperity or harm?” story leads to several questions and cautions.

Oil shale and tar sands are very dirty fuels which require considerable energy to extract and process. To date they have been economically marginal at best. And they have always been environmentally disastrous.

Also, due to the growing awareness and concern about fossil fuel-fueled climate change, there is likely to be a significant carbon fee or tax imposed on all sources, leakages, and uses of fossil carbon-based fuels and products. Such fees or taxes are likely to start off small and ramp up rapidly. Some may hope and wish otherwise ­— and lobby and work against carbon fees — but the fees will eventually come.

What does this have to do with Sego Canyon, Book Cliffs, Grand County, etc.?

What you invest today in trying to develop or foster fossil fuel development will bite you in the very near future. What is economically marginal — or barely viable — today will be uneconomic in just a few years. The investors are already leaving the fossil fuel development industry in droves. Your ‘friction fee’ and other expected income from such developments will be gone – and Grand County will be stuck with major bills, an economic ‘bust’, and a degraded landscape.

Be cautious, be careful, be very skeptical.

Joe Andrade

Salt Lake City

So it is possible to work with the BLM? Allelulia!

So can we use the Governor’s $3M Federal Land fund for something useful – rather than paying lawyers?

Maybe a few of those $$ could help with fixing the Emery County airport!

Thanks.

Science is never fully ‘settled’. We keep learning, studying, questioning. But if you choose to deny a generally accepted consensus, you need to have lots of very good counter evidence. The deniers have very little evidence.

If Mr. Jones wants to continue to argue against doing anything related to mitigating climate change, he may want to consider doing something about air pollution – almost all of which comes from burning and processing fossil fuels.

So even if you propose to let the planet warm, or insist on believing that it is not warming, you might want to try to do something about air pollution. Really the only way to do that is to switch to truly renewable energies – and use a lot less energy.

Fox News has fostered climate change denial for many years – but now they are funding and airing the new COSMOS series. Mr. Jones should watch and pay attention (Sundays, 8 pm). Enjoy – and learn.

The problem is GROWTH – more and more people expecting homes, services, jobs – and a culture and government dedicated to ‘accommodating’ that growth. As I noted in a DesNews op-ed on Feb. 23 (Mountain urbanism – optimism not enough), the real reality and problem is our rapidly increasing numbers, all wanting to live along the narrow strip known as the Wasatch Front:

We must confront the very hard realities upon us: Growth must greatly slow. We must move towards full sustainability — in energy, in material resources, in population. We must rethink and revise our very fundamental and ingrained religious and cultural ideologies and doctrines.

The problem is GROWTH – more and more people expecting homes, services, jobs – and a culture and government dedicated to ‘accommodating’ that growth. The parallel story by Anderson on ‘City Life’ and high density housing, etc. helps – but only a little. As I noted in a DesNews op-ed on Feb. 23 (Mountain urbanism – optimism not enough), the real reality and problem is our rapidly increasing numbers, all wanting to live along the narrow strip known as the Wasatch Front: We must confront the very hard realities upon us: Growth must greatly slow. We must move towards full sustainability — in energy, in material resources, in population. We must rethink and revise our very fundamental and ingrained religious and cultural ideologies and doctrines.

Science is never fully ‘settled’. We keep learning, studying, questioning. But if you choose to deny a generally accepted consensus, you need to have lots of very good counter evidence. The deniers have very little evidence. And even if Mr. Harris and his funders want to continue to argue against doing anything related to mitigating climate change, they may want to consider doing something about air pollution – almost all of which comes from burning and processing fossil fuels. So even if you propose to let the planet warm, perhaps because you live in the far North, you might want to try to do something about air pollution. Really the only way to do that is to switch to truly renewable energies – and use a lot less energy. Fox News has fostered climate change denial for many years – but now they are funding and airing the new COSMOS series. Mr. Harris should watch and pay attention.

The ACA does need to be greatly improved and expanded. It was an imperfect compromise because of the obstructionism of insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the GOP, and other vested interests in a ‘market-based’ system – including Sen. Hatch and his donors and sponsors.

ACA is far better than what we had before; it can and will be improved and expanded – perhaps eventually becoming a full, national Medicare system – and hopefully NOT ‘free’market’ based or enhanced.

The latest Hatch Dispatch includes its usual arrogant statements, but this time it outright lies. Hatch tries to make 3 anti-ObamaCare points – using a very bold font:

Higher premiums and fewer choices? – perhaps yes for a very few – a lie when it comes to most people;

Seniors losing plans, benefits, doctors? – not the sources I read;

Job creators suffer uncertainty? – just the opposite! Job creators (I was one some years ago) can do their entrepreneurial magic without worrying about their employees’ health care – they can just enroll in ObamaCare.

So Hatch’s facts are distorted, at best, and his arrogance marches on unabated! The Deseret News should be as critical of Hatch as it is of Obama.

Yes, studies are useful, but the problem is all the drilling and production.

Slow it all down. Let the wells run out. Stop drilling. Keep the fossil fuels in the ground – safely sequestered.

We already know climate change and chaos is largely out of control – due to CO2 production and methane release.

Enact a fat tax on all carbon sources and fuels, increase it every year. That by itself will stimulate the economy and get rid of fossil fuels. Just do it.

Yes, renewables are the future – and fossil fuels need to be the past. Let’s enact a fat fee on carbon sources and fuels – across the board – and raise it every year. That would greatly stimulate the economy, slow down fossil fuel production and use, and begin to address climate change and weather chaos. We’re in the 21st Century – the 19th is long gone. Maybe we need to unelect the dinosaurs now in leadership positions.

Yes, Tinker’s story and talk is very impressive. I was there. Thanks for the story.

On the same page of today’s Trib is the lead story on the LDS women, girls gather…ing.

I hope someone there encouraged their first amendment rights – encouraging them to speak up rather than just ‘keep covenants’.

On the same page of today’s Trib is a story titled ‘Free speech advocate: Exercise your rights’ – a report on Mary Beth Tinker‘s talk at the local Society of Professional Journalists meeting the day before. Tinker encouraged all youth – men and women – and their adult teachers, parents, etc., to exercise their first amendment rights. To speak out against injustice. To speak up. I hope some of this spirit was somehow included in the covenant-focused LDS Women and Girls meeting.

The headline should have been: Fantasyland Plans for Major Growth.

All the growth planning people do great work; Envision Utah is to be commended, BUT: no one is questioning the growth. If we build it, they’ll come. And no matter how good the gasoline is, how many electric cars we have, how strict the air pollution regulations, how convenient the mass transit – a doubling of the population along the Wasatch Front will be intolerable. Growth is not always good, especially here; and growth is not inevitable.

In some respects Envision Utah and the recent Mountain Urbanism, Mountain Modernism Mayor’s Conference do a disservice to reality: by ignoring the realities of growth, they actually endorse and encourage it! See: the Mountain Urbanism op-ed of Feb. 23.

Gov Herbert, his Clean Air Action Team, Envision Utah, the mayors, etc. must question and challenge the growth-based ideology which plagues our ‘planning’. Until then all such planning efforts are actually counter-productive.

Thanks for quoting Michelle Hoffman in the story – she understands.

The headline said Jewell supports paying back…I don’t think so. She responded to Rep. Stewart that she wouldn’t resist. That’s not supporting.

How do Hatch, Lee, Stewart, Herbert, and most of our other elected politicians have the gall to want pay back when nearly all were supportive of and instrumental in the government shutdown? That’s the height of hypocrisy and double-dealing. They all knew the shutdown meant National Park closure. They all knew the economic impact to the state – and yet they nearly all endorsed and supported the budgetary and political chaos.

No – no payback for Utah. That would just encourage them all to continue their destructive, extortion-based politics and ideologies. They all need to be unelected. They need to be replaced by candidates who are there to serve the people and the Nation – and not consumed by paranoia and 19th century ideologies.

Coal is a very dirty fuel. Period. The sooner we transform Utah’s energy economy away from coal – and then later away from all fossil fuels – the better. Our leaders should be out in front, advocating and facilitating the transformation.

California – and Utah – don’t want coal-generated electricity; they don’t even want natural gas – generated electricity. We all want truly renewably-generated electricity. So let’s get on with it.

Elect officials who understand this and have the brains and guts to help their communities transform. Where are the state and county incentives and initiatives to wean us out of a coal-based economy?

Utah’s current elected officials are still wistfully gazing at the 19th century – rather than accepting they are now in the 21st. If they can’t adapt, unelect them – and elect those who can.

There’s no ‘war on coal’ – coal is a very dirty fuel. Period. Nearly the entire Periodic Table is in coal – and then in coal ash (the part that doesn’t go up the stacks).

Want cadmium, mercury, arsenic, lead, …? It’s all there, as well as the particulates exacerbating our many respiratory problems.

Thank God for California and the EPA – because they actually care about our health. Massey certainly doesn’t.

Why doesn’t Massey use the $$ he’ll spend on this PR-generating lawsuit to help transform the communities his miners and drivers live in – to help those communities transform their economy away from coal, perhaps to renewable energy technologies?

Coal fueled the 18th and 19th C (as well as the 20th). Those centuries are long over. We are now in the 21st C. Our leaders and business people should wake up to that fact.

Thanks for covering Stewart’s nearly content-less talk to Utah legislators. Stewart’s response to the air quality question is childish and truly sickening. He advocates rapid growth in fossil fuel development and production, less regulation, refinery capacity increases, etc. The North Salt Lake refineries are in his district. Nearly everything he ‘stands’ for will contribute to worse air quality and to a poorer health and quality of life for Utah residents. There are at least 2 other candidates running this year to replace him. I wish them well.

Fortunately, the average life expectancy in our nation today is over 80 years. Every child born will grow up. Nearly all will want a spouse, a home, possessions, transportation, etc. – and an economy which provides them with a job and financial wellbeing. The problem is the planet is finite, resources are now limited. Our growth-oriented and fossil fuel-based economy is now seriously damaging the planet – its atmosphere, land, and oceans. We must move rapidly towards a sustainable, steady state economy – and that means a stable population. Our local culture’s interest in large families, with each child growing up to have his/her own large family, etc. is clearly unsustainable. Our local interest in and expectation for large families is running into the rigid limits of a finite planet, finite resources, climate change, and pollution. That’s the real problem. The kids understand that. Why can’t the ‘adults’?

No, thanks.

Utah legislators want these lands primarily for their (legislators’ ) own growth and development.

Let’s obtain even greater benefits from Federal lands by advocating for MORE National Parks and Monuments:

a Book Cliffs National Monument with Green River as the gateway city;

a San Rafael Swell National Monument – perhaps Hanksville as gateway city.

Advocate for the Greater Canyonlands National Monument, benefitting Monticello and Bluff.

Rural Utah – and all of Utah – benefits from the Federal land presence – don’t minimize or destroy that presence. People enjoy and visit grandeur – not drilling rigs or subdivisions.

‘Those who have used human reasoning … have diminished themselves and cheapened civilization…’.

Really? Do we have a God-given brain with which to think and reason?

Do we have free will? Does that cheapen and diminish us?

Whatever happened to ‘agency’?

No, thanks.

Utah legislators want these lands primarily for their (legislators’ ) own growth and development.

Let’s obtain even greater benefits from Federal lands by advocating for MORE National Parks and Monuments:

a Book Cliffs National Monument with Green River as the gateway city;

a San Rafael Swell National Monument – perhaps Hanksville as gateway city.

Advocate for the Greater Canyonlands National Monument, benefitting Monticello and Bluff.

Rural Utah – and all of Utah – benefits from the Federal land presence – don’t minimize or destroy that presence. People enjoy and visit grandeur – not drilling rigs or

Some want to believe, others want to question. On one end of the Belief ‘Spectrum’ are strong believers and ideologs – on the other end are skeptics, questioners. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. Those who believe in doctrines, traditional religions, sacred texts, etc. are on one end of the Belief Spectrum; scientists and critical thinkers tend towards the other end.

We use the term ‘hard-wired’ for those ideologs who cannot process facts and perspectives which lead to a challenge to their ingrained ideologies. We say that to really confront your hard-core beliefs and ideologies, you have to at least partially ‘re-wire’ your brain – and that is very difficult to do for most people.

A popular version of such concepts is Chris Mooney’s book The Republican Brain.Stephen Colbert’s quote: ‘Reality has a well known liberal bias’ is also relevant.

Perhaps MRI studies can shed some light on these attributes. I look forward to the study’s results.

It is about ‘symbolism’ – it is about principles – it is about our collective future – it is about stewardship of the planet.

Our addiction to fossil fuels has already resulted in major man-made changes to this planet, resulting in an alteration of the climate itself. So much so than we now call the age we are in the Anthropocene – the first time in geologic time that the planet has been and continues to be changed by Mankind.

Sen Bennett’s ‘what difference does 1% make’ could easily apply to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and other issues and behavior risky to both individuals and society.

It makes a great deal of difference. It’s time to stop the flow through the oil needle.

Yes!, so let’s obtain even greater benefits from Federal lands by advocating for MORE National Parks and Monuments:

a Book Cliffs National Monument with Green River as the gateway city;
a San Rafael Swell National Monument – perhaps Hanksville as gateway city.

Advocate for the Greater Canyonlands National Monument, benefitting Monticello and Bluff.

Rural Utah – and all of Utah – benefits from the Federal land presence – don’t minimize or destroy that presence. Let’s spend some of Rep. Ivory’s and the Governor’s Federal Land litigation fund for advocating more Parks and Monuments.

People enjoy and visit grandeur – not drilling rigs or subdivisions.

Thanks for referring to ‘his coal-mining constituents’ in the Price area. Elected officials from coal-mining regions need to be working to facilitate their region’s transition from a coal-dominated, extractive economy towards a sustainable economy. Rather than deny CO2 problems, perhaps to ‘protect’ coal, Anderson and others should realize that ‘Carbon’ County is a very solar-intensive county and could be participating in the solar energy transition now underway in most areas, although Utah lags far behind much of the rest of the country.

Perhaps Price voters should be electing people with the vision and skills to facilitate a modern economy, rather than trying to protect a dying one based on 19th century economic assumptions.

Here’s a better idea:

The Citizens Climate Lobby advocates legislation for a national carbon fee and dividend (revenue neutral) to help encourage the metamorphosis of our economy – from its heavy dependence on air quality deteriorating fossil fuels to much cleaner energy sources.

Utah should ‘jump the gun’ and impose its own state carbon fee, directing some or most of those revenues to the causes and activities suggested by Sen. Adams.

Such action would reinforce the Legislature’s interest in real Federalism, substantiate Utah’s leadership in solving its own problems, document our creativity and innovation, and contribute to clean air and the clean energy economy.

Would the Senator draft and submit such legislation?

Thanks!

Keynote Speaker C. Arden Pope presented a comprehensive review of the health effects of particulate air pollutants, including his own studies beginning with Utah County’s Geneva Steel ‘experiments’. He concluded with an ‘exposure’ of ‘secret science’ – and his response to the subpoenas of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. It was fascinating (and exasperating) to learn that the Committee’s Chair and several members, including our own Rep. Chris Stewart, charged the EPA with withholding ‘secret science’ from the public – hence the subpoenas. That secret science was ‘exposed’ by Dr. Pope for all to see – via the many publications in the open, publicly accessible, peer-reviewed scientific literature. How can we continue to elect self-delusional, anti-science ideologs like Chris Stewart? – that’s my question, not Pope’s.

The five topical tracks were useful although there was much fantasy and wishful thinking in our ‘planning’ for a doubling of Wasatch Front populations in the next 20 or so years. If that happens, most of us will require serious respiratory therapy – or last rites.

It was a very good conference. Thanks WSU!

Thanks – and for the link to the full Jefferson quote:

“Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.”

If one is ignorant of a subject, but rational and open-minded, he/she can take in information and even opinion and often come to a rational perspective. But if he starts out as a knowing, believing ideolog, then it is much more difficult.

Perhaps we could add this to Rep. Ivory’s Federalism education curriculum?

Thanks for all you write.

Rep. Mike Noel was quoted in “Heard on the Hill” (Tribune, March 4): “To me, the scariest voter is the uninformed voter.” I agree but would add “the uninformed and misinformed voter.”

Many of Utah’s voters, and their representatives, seem to get their information from ideologically based and special interest-funded media echo chambers that deny facts and science and endorse wishful and fantasy thinking.

Joe Andrade

Salt Lake City

Terrific. We need many more women in politics, in the Legislature, and in higher elected offices. Women tend to be less ideological, less confrontational, and more open-minded – and certainly more compassionate – than most men.

Please RUN – and win.

My own one year experiment in democracy, running for US Congress in UT District 2 as an independent, The RUN, has some advice and perspectives for candidates. It’s available to all for free at wwwdot2andradedotorg.

Good luck.

Although each brain and mind is unique, its development is largely dependent on its environment and sensory inputs. Parents who constrain and inhibit individual development by overly curtailing their children’s experiences, experiments, and exposures are, in my opinion, practicing child abuse.

‘Hard-wiring’ occurs very early – and then becomes very difficult to change or accommodate in response to new experiences, opportunities, and perspectives.

Children need to become their own individuals – and not become simply clones of their parents, parental prejudices, or convenient ideologies. Thanks for addressing the subject.

Yes!

This reminds me of Steve Olsen, a Demo who ran for Congress against Bishop many years ago. He wrote a piece:

Why most Utahns are Democrats and just don’t know it yet; reprinted as

Why you may be a Liberal (and why that’s OK).

And – if they don’t want to call themselves Democrats, independent or unaffiliated may be more palatable.

Continued population increase is a serious problem for the planet and for Utah’s Wasatch Front. Those that choose to have less or even no children should not be shunned or challenged for their decisions and behavior.

The Utah Population and Environment Coalition’s — utahpopdotorg – recent radio ads called It’s OK to Plan drew considerable attention and interest from the local population.

The country’s very poor regulations and expectations in regard to maternal and paternal job and social benefits is another factor.

Our economy and society are in a great transition and even transformation. The old assumptions and expectations are changing – perhaps for the better.

Mountain urbanism, mountain modernism — and optimism — were the subjects of the 4th annual Mayor’s Symposium Feb. 13 at The Leonardo. It was an informative, inspiring and well-organized event focused on the Wasatch Front’s future growth and development.

Building on the introductory lead-off talk by the U.’s Noon Nan Ellin, chair of the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, both mayors — Salt Lake City’s Ralph Becker and the county’s Ben McAdams — noted the doubling in the area’s population in the next 25-30 years. The purpose of the meeting was to identify, embrace and utilize our unique resources to plan and implement that future doubling.

It was all so positive, so optimistic, so inspiring because it chose to ignore the area’s hard realities. Only one speaker even mentioned climate change, and that was in the context of water resources for the region. Only several of the nearly two dozen speakers made any brief reference to air quality. And — most importantly — no one ventured to even question “future growth and development.”

I love optimism, creativity, out-of-the-box approaches, public transit, high-density housing, walkable cities, persistence, optimism. But in my nearly 73 years I have learned to distrust ideology, overly wishful thinking, fantasy, fiction and the inability to think critically.

No amount of high density housing, public transit, “repurposing” or recycling will allow us to double the population in this or other Wasatch Front valleys in the next 25 years without asphyxiating. That’s not pessimism — that’s realism.

In order to live like New Yorkers or Parisians or even Londoners we need to address the local culture’s — and its politicians’ — emphasis on large families, large homes, private automobiles, 80 mph speed limits, golf courses, asphalt, energy waste, excess water use and other activities and even ideologies based on the now excessive use of material and natural resources.

Our economy and lifestyle is based on 19th century economic, political and even religious assumptions: land and air are infinite and water is abundant. Grow, multiply, expand. There’s always more — there’s no end in sight.

We now live in a 21st century world where we have already dramatically altered the air, the land and the oceans. Our growth and consumption-based economy has now altered the climate itself. The mild climate wherein civilization evolved — the last 10,000 years called the Holocene — is now gone, replaced by an unknown and, until now, unexperienced new “climate” — resulting in chaotic, extreme and unpredictable weather.

We continue to deny, to ignore, to fantasize — to be optimistic and to “plan” — without confronting the very basis of the challenges upon us.

Mountain urbanism was a very good conference. I applaud the organizers, speakers and participants. Everything they said and are doing is important, useful and effective — and needs to continue. But … it will not be enough.

We must confront the very hard realities upon us. Growth must greatly slow. We must move towards full sustainability — in energy, in material resources, in population. And that means a rethinking and major revision of very fundamental and ingrained religious and cultural ideologies and doctrines.

We, the living, have only one planet. There are no others.

Joe Andrade is a retired professor of engineering, University of Utah. He has worked as a scientist, engineer and educator. He ran for Congress in 2012 as an independent. He was involved in the planning and development of The Leonardo museum.