With the announcement that Utah is the preferred candidate to host the 2034 winter Olympics, a frustrating narrative has appeared that the pollution in the Salt Lake Valley and Utah needs to be reduced to once again show to the world that Utah is a beautiful state.
This narrative is frustrating because first, why do the political leaders feel that the only reason to reduce pollution and improve air quality is because the world is watching? Is the health of their constituents not enough? Is waking up to air quality alerts stating that Salt Lake City has the worst air quality in the nation or the fact that residents in Salt Lake County have a 42% higher rate of emergency room visits for asthma during inversion events not enough? The residents of Salt Lake Valley and Utah live here now. We deal with poor air quality now, and frankly, this attitude from the politicians of only improving air quality if the Olympics come to Utah is highly disappointing.
The second reason this narrative is frustrating is it serves as a reminder of the lackadaisical approach certain elected officials are taking to tackle this problem. State Sen. Todd Weiler, Republican co-chair of the Clean Air Caucus, said it best, “I don’t think we feel the urgency in 2024, I think that’s something that we need to work on over the next decade, but it doesn’t have to all be done in February of 2024… I want to say we’re going to do things over the next 10 years, and we’ll do some things this session. But, I think it’s going to be a generational shift.”
Well, Mr. Weiler, you are right, it doesn’t have to all be done in February of 2024, it should have been done a long time ago. Utah’s poor air quality has been an issue since the 19th century, so the fact that we are still dealing with it shows a continued pattern of inadequate leaders being appointed to positions that have the ability to make change and fumbling their responsibilities.
Mr. Weiler, it appears that you are yet again another one of these inadequate leaders fumbling their responsibilities, so I recommend to you that you follow your own advice and step down from your position in order to make way for a generational shift in leaders who are up to the challenge.
Roger Hale Miller, Salt Lake City
