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Utah lawmakers were busy in recent days with some of the hundreds of bills introduced in the current legislative session. Among the prominent proposals advanced or floated were several that have drawn criticism from environmental groups.
These measures span an array of topics, from Colorado River water diversion to the fees on hybrid and electric vehicles to digital billboards to talk of a new rail line in the controversial inland port in northwest Salt Lake City.
Water authority
Conservation groups were howling about a bill that emerged fully formed and turbocharged for approval from the Republican majority — without any prior public discussion — to create a new agency aimed at strengthening Utah’s hand in claiming more water from the Colorado River.
HB297 is the only bill so far to emerge that is sponsored jointly by House Speaker Brad Wilson of Kaysville and Senate President Stuart Adams of Layton. It popped up Wednesday and by Thursday shot through a House committee on a straight party-line vote. By all appearances there is no stopping the bill that has dismayed water-conservation advocates who see it as a climate-change denial measure.
The proposal is believed to be a mechanism that would promote the Lake Powell pipeline and other Colorado River diversion projects. But water managers have been warning for years now that the vast water reserves allocated among seven states and numerous American Indian tribes in the 100-year-old Colorado River Compact exist only on paper. In reality, an increasingly warm, dry climate has reduced flows by more than 18% as demand continues to surge. Lake Powell is 40% full and in danger of dropping even lower, with fear that it could approach or reach “dead pool.”
Bill supporters, though, say Utah leaders have an obligation to fight for the state’s legal share of the water and must be willing to stand up to other states — including California — to claim it.
The battle for this water is, said the House speaker, one where “we are outmatched and outgunned right now by those [states] that are using the majority of the water in the river. … We absolutely want to live up to the agreements that have been made to those states. But, at the same time, our responsibility as elected officials in Utah is to protect the interests of Utah.”
“This bill isn’t about water,” countered Zach Frankel of the Utah Rivers Council. “It’s about money. It’s about climate-change denial. … This bill is a water war.”
Frankel also raised alarm about the sweeping authority of the the new agency to exempt its meetings and records from public view.
Clean-fuel cars
Owners of electric and hybrid vehicles would be subject to up to a fivefold increase in Utah registration fees under a measure that cleared a House committee on its way to the full chamber.
HB209, if enacted, would make Utah’s fees on these clean-fuel vehicles the highest in America. Critics say such a move would be contrary to the public interest because it would hurt sales of these autos and set back efforts to reduce air pollution.
Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, a sponsor of the bill, argued the measure is needed because electric cars and hybrids now totally or largely escape gasoline taxes that fund road construction and maintenance.
So, he said, the proposed fee hikes would force owners to pay their fair share. Still, he argued, they would pay perhaps 20% less than average drivers spend annually on fuel taxes.
The bill would raise the fees for electric vehicles (such as Tesla, KIA Soul or Nissan Leaf) from $120 to $300, up 150%.
Registration fees for plug-in hybrids (such as a Chevy Volt or PHEV) would quintuple from $52 to $260.
And fees for hybrid electric vehicles (such as a Prius) would rise from $20 to $50, up 150%.
“This bill would increase EV [electric vehicle] fees to the highest in the nation,” complained Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, a concern echoed by many critics.
Inland port
Opponents of the Utah Inland Port project planned for Salt Lake City’s northwest side have long worried that leaders behind the massive distribution hub would pursue the creation of a second rail line — something they say would “supersize” the already controversial project and lead to dirtier air.
So their worst fears were confirmed with David Ure, director of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), seemed to confirm those plans in a legislative committee meeting.
Ure said he anticipated legislation was coming soon that would help his state agency clean up a 770-acre landfill it owns within the inland port boundaries “so that the inland port can take place.” He called the site the “only place” where a railroad could have access to the entire port.
Attempts to learn more about the proposal ended with fingers pointing in all directions except to definitive answers.
Inland Port Authority Director Jack Hedge said: “I’ll be honest, I don’t know what SITLA’s talking about.” He referred questions to the agency.
SITLA’s assistant director of real estate development, Kyle Pasley, referred questions to the port authority.
Meanwhile, Ure couldn’t be reached for further comment.
Digital billboards
Utah’s billboard industry has once again returned to the state Capitol to try and override local regulations it complains unfairly hamper its ability to survive and thrive — this time focusing on digital signs.
Many cities and counties prohibit or restrict the bright, flashing electric signs that contribute to what opponents consider visual pollution. But outdoor advertising companies say they are necessary to bring them into the 21st century.
SB61, which won approval in a Senate committee, would flip the switch by allowing the owner of any billboard in Utah to upgrade it to an electronic format, regardless of whether a local government’s regulations prohibit that.
Cameron Diehl, executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, sees the proposal as an attempt by one powerful industry to secure “additional special treatment and special rights.” And he argued the move could degrade quality of life for residents who live near these bright billboards.
Kate Kopischke, who leads the anti-billboard group Scenic Utah along with her husband, former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, said people around the state “are sick of the proliferation of billboards.”
And the perception, she added, is that “billboard companies pay to play.”
A recent Salt Lake Tribune analysis of campaign finance donations found that Reagan Outdoor Advertising, one of Utah’s largest billboard companies, ranked as the No. 6 individual donor to state legislators last year, giving nearly $50,000 to legislative campaigns. It also donated more than $40,000 to Gov. Spencer Cox.
— Tribune reporters Taylor Stevens, Lee Davidson, Brian Maffly and news editor Dan Harrie contributed to this article.
