Latest news with #HousePublicUtilitiesandEnergyCommittee
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
As layoffs and budget cuts hit federal agencies, lawmakers explore taking over some public land
Part of the San Rafael Swell outside of Goblin Valley State Park is pictured on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019. The San Rafael Swell was identified as a region where the Utah could create a new state park or campground in a recent resolution sponsored by Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) Could Utah jointly manage its five national parks with the federal government? What if a stretch of U.S. Forest Service land in Davis County becomes a new state park? Can Little Sahara Recreation Area be transferred to the state's control? Those are a few of the questions posed in a resolution sponsored by Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, that passed out of the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee on Tuesday morning. HCR12 received one 'no' vote from Rep. Rosalba Dominguez, D-Murray, and will move to the House for consideration. As federal land management agencies, which manage about 68% of the entire state, continue to experience layoffs and budget cuts, Eliason and other lawmakers say the state could swoop in to take control of a handful of areas in Utah. His resolution does the following: Explores the idea of jointly managing the state's five national parks — Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion — with the federal government. That would allow the state to 'improve management efficiency and visitor experiences while reducing federal expenditures,' according to the resolution. Directs the Utah Division of State Parks to work with the U.S. Forest Service to turn the Antelope Flat Campground — located on the southeast side of Flaming Gorge Reservoir — into the Flaming Gorge State Park. 'Flaming Gorge is just a fabulous recreation opportunity in the state, but its access is being limited because of the lack of funding and staffing out of Washington, D.C.,' Eliason said. Directs the division to explore the idea of either purchasing, leasing or transferring a stretch of U.S. Forest Service Land in the Wasatch Mountains east of Bountiful, Centerville and Farmington. Located along Skyline Drive, local leaders in the area have proposed naming the area Skyline State Park. Allows the division to work with the Bureau of Land Management to transfer Little Sahara Recreation Area in Juab County to the state. Utah already authorized this transfer through legislation in 2017, but it would require approval from the BLM, which hasn't happened yet. Directs the division to broadly evaluate 'recreational and scenic locations in the state,' to create new state parks, monuments, and campgrounds, with a focus on the Monte Cristo area south of Bear Lake and state land within the San Rafael Swell near Green River. The resolution 'urges' Utah's congressional delegation to enact legislation that would create a framework for these land purchases, transfers or joint management agreements to take place. As of now, the resolution is exploratory. There is no fiscal note, meaning lawmakers don't intend to spend any state funds with the resolution. Eliason called it an attempt to 'gather the facts — what are the costs going to be, what are the challenges?' The resolution is the latest example of state leaders' interest in controlling federal lands within Utah's borders. That sentiment culminated last year in an ambitious lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, where Utah tried to argue that it was unconstitutional for the Bureau of Land Management to hold onto federal land without giving it a formal designation. The high court declined to hear the lawsuit in January. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The reasoning outlined in Eliason's resolution is much different than the lawsuit, and during the committee meeting Tuesday morning he pushed back on concerns that this was an attempt by Utah to take over swaths of public land, including national parks. The U.S. Department of Interior, under Biden, moved to jointly manage some public land with tribal governments, including Utah's Bears Ears National Monument, and the agreement Eliason is seeking through his resolution would be similar. 'This is not buying or transferring the national parks to Utah. They remain federally designated national parks, but clearly there is a funding void, and the bureaucracy to get things done is immense,' he said. Eliason said he started working on this resolution before the Trump administration was cutting budgets and laying off thousands of workers with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service and other federal agencies with a footprint in Utah. Now, he said, the goal of taking control of federal land is more pressing. 'As a state, we have a choice, if there was some cooperative arrangement made where we could help mitigate those job losses and those lost recreation opportunities,' he said. 'Because I don't see the federal government addressing it anytime in the near future. So we could just complain and say, 'this is really too bad for our citizens and our visitors.' Or we can say, 'is there a way we can step in?'' Some lawmakers urged caution during Tuesday's meeting, including Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, who ultimately voted for the bill, but had concerns about the state biting off more than it could chew. 'With the new administration, be prepared for budget cuts. And that's coming true. And that's going to affect the state because the state operates a lot on federal grants,' he said. 'Before we step into the deep water, we need to know how to swim and we need to know where we're headed with some of this stuff.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
My family suffered from exposure to radioactive toxins. Now, leaders want nuclear energy in Utah.
Thelma Whiskers of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe speaks in opposition of the White Mesa Uranium Mill during a protest outside the Utah Capitol Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) The Utah State Legislature's House Public Utilities and Energy Committee marked this year's National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders — a day that honors the victims of radiation from nuclear test sites — by unanimously supporting a bill to fast-track nuclear development. The move aligns with the Gov. Spencer Cox's energy plan, or 'operation gigawatt,' which Cox described as an opportunity for Utah to 'lead the country in energy development, secure our energy future and remain a net energy exporter while diversifying and expanding our energy resources.' Despite the governor's claims that nuclear energy is 'clean and reliable,' it is carbon intensive to construct and costly to operate. But more importantly, it's unsafe. State legislators have acknowledged the risk of nuclear disasters, but the dangers of nuclear energy production start earlier in the supply chain. My mom was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town built for uranium research and nuclear study in World War II. My grandfather was an avid deer hunter in his younger days, but in their community it is recommended that they get the meat hunted near the labs tested for radiation exposure before consuming it. When my mom worked at the labs there, she looked out her window to see the river below her office glowing, something her boss told her she shouldn't worry about it. But cancer and genetic disorders are high in the community. My grandmother is currently living with the same rare form of cancer that killed two of her three brothers. My aunt, my mom's only sibling, was born with a serious genetic condition that significantly impacted her quality of life and contributed to her passing in her late thirties. These are the public health costs of nuclear energy. Uranium must be mined and processed and to do that communities and families are sacrificed. Radioactive toxins are already harming communities in our state. One such community is White Mesa, Utah, where roughly 200 members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe live. In October, I had the honor of visiting White Mesa to join the annual spiritual walk from their community center to the Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill just a few miles down the road, where radioactive waste from around the world is stored and uranium is processed. There, we learned about the health impacts from this facility and how accidents near their homes have been hastily and improperly cleaned up. Tribal members told us how they abandoned traditional hunting and gathering practices out of fear of contamination and that the construction of the mill destroyed sites that are sacred to them, including burial grounds. What is happening in White Mesa is not unusual. The history of uranium in this country is a story of exploitation of Indigenous peoples. The vast majority of uranium in the country has been mined on Navajo Nation where economic conditions, caused by centuries of colonial exploitation, forced people to work in dangerous conditions without proper information about the risks. Members of the Navajo Nation experience many health effects to this day including high rates of cancer, due to waste and mines that are still on their lands. Downwinders have never been fully compensated from the impacts of nuclear testing. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) recently expired, the little compensation downwinders had been receiving has dried up leaving many Utahns struggling with expensive medical bills. Utah should explore forms of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and geothermal before pursuing nuclear energy. With proper battery storage, technology concerns about intermittent power can be rectified. Despite Utah's supposed 'all of the above' energy approach, the legislature is attempting to restrict solar energy development and disqualify wind and solar facilities from serving as large-scale generation providers. It is long since time that we ensure that uranium mines are cleaned up and that waste and toxins are moved out of the White Mesa Mill and away from the Ute Mountain Ute tribe. It is not the time to bring nuclear energy into the state. Instead we must seek justice for those who have been harmed by the uranium and nuclear industries.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will Utah become a nuclear powerhouse some day?
A legislative bill to establish the Utah Energy Council, energy development zones and a nuclear energy consortium unanimously passed Monday out of the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee. The bill, HB249 by Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, aims to position Utah as a player in energy innovation and foster plans for the future for microreactors or small modular reactor technology. 'We've got to start somewhere,' Albrecht told the committee. 'This will not be a plant tomorrow or the next day or the next year. This plant generation is going to be 10 to 15 years down the road, and hopefully technology improves and we generate power with zero carbon.' Utah has been identified by the IdIdaho National Laboratory as a 'first mover' state in the arena of advanced nuclear technology deployment — just one of a handful. That designation means Utah, with its research universities and all of the above energy approach is an ideal candidate to deploy nuclear to not only tamp emissions but to aid in economic development. The Frontiers Project has been working closely with Utah's congressional delegation and state representatives, as well as Utah's office of Energy Development. The state Legislature is serious about using that advantage and has taken out the notebooks and done some research. Lawmakers toured the facility west of Idaho Falls and also made a trip to the White Mesa processing mill in San Juan County. Albrecht was blunt when it came to meeting Utah's future energy needs, asserting multiple data centers want to locate here but Rocky Mountain Power lacks the capacity to meet their demand. Their solution is to get natural gas plants up and running to power their facilities, but in the long run, Albrecht said nuclear has to be part of the equation. 'So as you well know, energy production and security and reliability is a statewide issue. Utah is trying to get ahead of this. As you well know, we've got a lot of data centers that want to come to Utah. We're talking anywhere from 50 megawatts on up to 500 megawatts of power.' Albrecht conceded the bill has a lot of moving parts and is a work in progress but he was adamant. 'We have to start somewhere.' He surmised it will be tweaked and changed and evolve over the years, likely long after he has left the legislature. 'Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed once in awhile.' He also conceded the failure of the NuScale small modular reactor planned at Idaho National Laboratory but later shelved due to costs for ratepayers of participating cities and districts. He received support, however, from the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems which pursued the Carbon Free Power Project. 'Through the process of this, of our development of the project, we realized a number of the commercial considerations related to developing new nuclear in the state,' said Michael Suarez, government affairs director for UAMPS. 'You know at UAMPS we had many municipalities lead out on this issue. You know that with Utah's pioneering spirit, we can get this done, and we can get anything done as Utahns if we're collaborating and working together. ' The bill received other praise. 'We can move forward with a stronger, more reliable and sustainable energy future, specifically on nuclear. The nuclear consortium is created here will give us a leg up, bringing together the best minds. This bill is how Utah goes nuclear,' said Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources which oversees the state's energy development office. Several critics, however, brought up health and safety concerns, recalling the fate of 'Utah downwinders' who suffered and died from above ground nuclear testing in Nevada. Ava Curtis gave a detailed presentation about the rampage cancer has caused in her family and the serious danger posed by exposure to nuclear radiation. 'What I'm asking from the members of this committee is to take the time to fully understand the risks of nuclear energy and to make sure that those who have been impacted by nuclear energy are voiced in this new committee, this new group that's studying this, including members of the mountain Ute tribe from white Mesa who are affected, members of the Navajo Nation, and those who've been impacted by nuclear energy and uranium refinement, such as my own family. Our voices should be heard when making energy decisions for a community.' Albrecht had his own story to tell, sympathizing with her about uranium mining during the Cold War era when his family worked in the uranium mines. 'I'm pretty close to nuclear and uranium because during the '50s and '60s, my dad had uranium mines on the San Rafael Swell. I was just a little, but I can remember going down to those mines. I had two brothers working in them, and some other relatives and people who worked for my dad, and he shipped that uranium, which was low grade uranium, to Grand Junction, Shiprock, and sold it to the U.S. government to build bombs with to end the Cold War,' Albrecht said. 'I had a brother die from cancer. Now I don't know if that was from working in the uranium mine, hauling the uranium in a truck, or from downwinders, and nobody will know to this day, but the cemeteries in southern Utah has already been alluded and they are full of people who died from cancer, all forms of cancer, because the government lied to us when they did the testing in Nevada. But we have comes a long way since then.' Utah, he added, needs to be positioned to take the leap if nuclear promises carbon free power, safety and reliability. This he stressed, is a first exploratory step.
