 |
 |
 |
||
 |
|
|
©Stephen Peterson
The Sausage Tastes a Little Better This Year
by Mark Clemens
During the 2008 General Session of the Utah Legislature, the rules committees on both the house and senate side seemed to withhold fewer bills. For the most part, this was a boon to the environment because good bills that might have been delayed, or even aborted, in previous years got to the floor with sufficient time to pass both houses. Whether this change arose as a reaction to the public rebuke in the special election that repealed private school vouchers or simply from a blossoming respect for legislative comity, one can only guess.
Roz McGee’s Legislative Swan Song
Anyone who has worked with Rep Roz McGee ( D-Salt Lake City) can tell you she’s patient, good humored and always comes to meetings prepared. She has served three terms in the Utah house representing the east side of Salt Lake City but will not seek a fourth term. This year’s passage of Substitute House Bill 106 is a tribute to her effectiveness as a legislator.
She sponsored similar legislation last year that made it through the house but didn’t have sufficient time to get through the senate. By working hard to enlist the support of Questar for a compromise bill that boosts a variety of clean fuels vehicles, including hybrids and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, the bill gained the momentum needed to pass both chambers.
Starting on 1 January 2009, buyers of hybrids and other clean-fuel vehicles, except CNG vehicles, will be able to claim a $750 tax credit. Buyers of CNG vehicles will be able to claim a credit of the smaller of $2,500, or 35% of the purchase price.
A Freshman’s Impressive Batting Average
It’s a puzzlement that the most beneficial measures can take years to pass the Utah legislature. Some measures, such as the bottle bill that would cut down on litter by imposing a recoverable deposit charge on containers, sponsored for several years by Sen Gene Davis, are repeatedly defeated by stubborn special interests.
It’s particularly notable, therefore, that freshman Rep Christine Johnson ( D-Salt Lake City) should be able to pass two progressive environmental bills in a single session. Her HB 303 will help to clean up tainted rivers and lakes by phasing out dishwashing detergents with more than .5% phosphorus by 2010. Phosphorus promotes unhealthy growth of algae and bacteria that can eliminate the dissolved oxygen needed for fish and other organisms.
The second bill, Second Substitute HB 146, requires school districts to implement a program to reduce school bus idling around schools and provides a one-time appropriation of $100,000 as matching money to begin a program to retrofit or replace dirty diesel school busses.
But Wait, There’s More
Rep Kory Holdaway (R-Taylorsville) introduced a bill, HB 104, that would have provided a continuing appropriation to support urban trails. Urban trails are not simply a recreational amenity; when they’re developed into a network, they provide a significant incentive for commuting via bicycle or on foot.
Unfortunately, Holdaway’s bill was pared down so the final version, Third Substitute HB 104, provides only a one-time appropriation of $250,000 for extending the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and another $250,000 for further planning of urban trails. This funding, although limited, is still welcome.
Until this session, Utah provided only very limited means to protect instream flows. The Utah Parks Department and the Division of Wildlife Resources are both allowed to accept donations of water rights to protect instream flows. Although this provision has been in place for nearly twenty years, for political reasons the two departments have only accepted an insignificant number of water rights.
HB 117, sponsored by Rep Stephen Sandstrom (R-Orem) will allow non-profit organizations whose mission is to promote fishing in Utah to protect instream flow for native trout by acquiring temporary water rights. These water rights revert to their original owners and use after ten years, and the circumstances in which they can be granted in the first place are limited by several bureaucratic hurdles.
These restrictions will limit the popularity and scope of protected instream flows. However, several attempts have been made, and defeated, to pass more sweeping provisions. If this bill provides some benefit and proves that protected instream flow will not bring about the downfall of Western agriculture, it might lead to a more relaxed approach in future years.
Net metering sounds like a hopelessly wonkish topic. Maybe it is, but a bill sponsored by Sen Kevin VanTassell (R-Vernal), Substitute SB 84, might do as much to promote renewable energy as Sen Bramble’s much-ballyhooed Energy Resource and Carbon Emission Reduction bill. Substitute SB 84, Net Metering Programs, expands the amount of energy produced by commercial, industrial and government-owned renewable energy installations that electricity sellers such as Rocky Mountain Power must buy back at the market rate.
The previous ceiling was 25 kilowatts, a relatively low amount equivalent to what solar panels on a private house might generate. The new ceiling is 2 megawatts which should allow much larger installations, such as the solar panel array proposed for the Salt Palace, to operate profitably.
Teacher’s Pet
It’s hard not to like Rep Fred Hunsaker (R-Logan). Each session he sponsors at least one bill focusing on energy or efficiency. This year he sponsored three including two that passed. One of these, Substitute HB 198, creates a revolving fund to lend money to state agencies to invest in energy efficiency projects and allows them to retain savings from energy efficiency projects as long as it’s re-invested in other such projects.
Unsafe at Any Speed
More confusion emanated from First Substitute SB 181 than from any other bill during this session. The bill, sponsored by Sen Scott Jenkins ( R-Plain City), appears to allow free rein for ATVs to drive on any two-lane public highway on which the posted speed is 50 mph or less outside of Salt Lake County and any city with a population of 5,000 or greater. However, depending on how one interprets other provisions of the legislation, even cities smaller than 5,000 might have authority to regulate ATV use on public highways.
Even as votes were being cast on the senate floor, supporters were making contradictory public statements about whether this legislation applies to ATVs on unpaved roads. An amendment to the substitute bill appears to limit its application to paved, striped roads.
This legislation deserved to be defeated if for no other reason than for the ambiguity of its language. However, in its final concurrence reading in the senate, only eight senators, Gene Davis, Brent Goodfellow, Jon Greiner, Lyle Hilliard, Pat Jones, Scott McCoy, Ross Romero and John Valentine continued to oppose it.
Perhaps the soundest judgment uttered on this bill belonged to Ogden Police Chief and Sen Jon Greiner (R-Ogden) who was cited in a Salt Lake Tribune article dated 14 February, “… dirt-trail vehicles are not safe in city or highway traffic. An OHV and its tires are not rated by the U.S. Department of Transportation for street travel. ‘It was never the intent of this vehicle to be an on-road vehicle,’ he said.”
A Big Gift to Delta
As originally introduced by Sen Curtis Bramble (R-Provo), SB 245 would have torpedoed the funding not only for the light rail line to Salt Lake Airport but also for the entire light-rail and commuter rail package funded by approximately $500 million in federal matching funds. The bill forbids the use of airport funds to build a fixed guideway, and Salt Lake City, like many cities with airports, had counted on using airport funds for the portion of the light rail line on airport property.
Ideology and the senator’s allegiance to the Delta Airlines corporate line required something as trivial as the long-term transportation needs of Salt Lake and Utah County residents to stand aside.
Let’s consider the logic and consistency of his argument. Airport funds may be used to pave parking lots and build parking structures. Neither of these uses has anything to do with terminals, gates or runways. Why should the automotive infrastructure be financed with airport funds but not the rail infrastructure?
Eventually a compromise that takes state revenue from other programs was agreed that will allow one of the state’s largest-ever mass transit projects to go forward. Fifth Substitute SB 245 is still bad policy and will prevent the airport from investing in any fixed guideways. These include, of course, the kinds of monorails and subways that many airports use to move passengers among terminals.
Up to Top