A group of Utah Moms wants state lawmakers to go on record in support of doing something about northern Utah’s poor air quality. The group “Utah Moms for Clean Air” says it is drafting a clean-air pledge for state legislators, and Utah’s congressional delegation, to sign.
As the 2013 state legislature gets underway, a group of Utah moms is trying to get lawmakers to acknowledge northern Utah’s pollution problem – and then to do something about it. Ingrid Griffee, a board member with Utah Moms for Clean Air, says its time for legislators to take a stance on the issue.
“Utah Moms for clean Air would like to offer our legislators the opportunity sometime at the beginning of this legislative session to really consider where they stand on this issue, and how they expect to help.”
The pledge, which Griffee says is based on anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, aims to put legislators on record.
“Hopefully they will consider the input of the mothers of this community and take this just as seriously as they would take Grover Norquist.”
The announcement by the group of moms comes at a time when a national spotlight has focused on Utah’s air pollution problem, and after the group Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment called on Governor Gary Herbert to declare a public health state of emergency. Physician Brian Moench says the problem is more than just a public health issue.
“That information was broadcast nationally, and even internationally. When the rest of the world hears that SLC and the Wasatch Front cities have the worst air in the country that has a significant and profound and long lasting economic liability to it. So if people think we couldn’t ask Kennecott or the oil refineries to ramp down production because they’d lose some money – well we’re all losing money because of the impact of this air pollution."