Tagged: environment

  The University of Utah College of Law is hosting the annual Stegner Symposium this week, focusing on Religion, Faith and the Environment. Increasingly, people of faith are citing their beliefs as a major motivation for protecting the environment and caring for those at the margins of society.

UTA debuts its new TRAX line to the airport, Chevron begins cleanup in Willard Bay, and a U of U researcher is getting an up close and never before seen view snowflakes.

Salt Lake City launches a new bike sharing program, outdoor businesses call on the president to protect land around Utah’s national parks, and a wind storm brings gusts up to 50 miles an hour to the Wasatch front.

The U.S. Interior Department announces a plan to develop Utah tar sands, a sweetheart deal could end up saving Salt Lake County millions of dollars, and the University of Utah begins an investigation into their swim team.

 A group of Democratic legislators are introducing six new bills in an effort to help tackle Utah’s poor air quality.

The content of the proposed bills ranges from offering free passes for UTA Buses and TRAX trains to allowing the state to put in place stricter restrictions than the Environmental Protection Agency already requires. Representative Joel Briscoe is sponsoring the bill that would fund giving away free UTA passes. He says even with a tight budget this is something that should be attainable.

Lawmakers, the state forester, local law enforcement and the Utah Farm Bureau Federation are trying to build support for two bills that deal with an intense wildfire season expected again this Summer. Both are sponsored by Republican Senator Margaret Dayton.  Senate Bill 62 would expand the governor’s ability to authorize all water sources needed to fight fires while SB 120 would put time and place restrictions on target shooting. State Forester Dick Buehler says just a small fraction of the 1528 wildfires last year were started by target shooters.

Utahns crowd into Governor Herbert’s Capitol office demanding clean air, the LDS church weighs in on boy Scouts and gays, and local political and environmental leaders give their take on President Obama’s new Secretary of the Interior appointment.

The Senate Revenue and Taxation committee chose not to move on a bill that would have allowed the state to tax water usage.

The Utah State Legislature begins today with many new faces, clean air advocates files a lawsuit against the EPA, and Congressmen Jim Matheson introduces legislation to limit kids’ access to violent video games.

The Utah Sheriff’s Association says they will not enforce federal gun laws they see as unconstitutional, air quality warnings are absent from UDOT signs, and people across the Salt Lake Valley spend their day serving others to honor Martin Luther King.

The Great Salt Lake occasionally smells strange during the summer and then there’s the “lake effect” in the winter. But within the waters of North America's most salty lake lies a unique variety of brine shrimp species that has spawned a rare public/private partnership between the Utah Department of Natural Resources and more than a dozen businesses.