I wish to propose a little experiment to Representative Roger Barrus (R – Centervile, District 18): take a look out your window at the Salt Lake Valley over the next thirty odd days you are at the Capitol – I want you to really look at it and see how you can’t see all the way to the Point of the Mountain. Then, when you are done with that, Representative, I want you to return home, climb up one of the shorter mountains in your district, and look north to try and spot even a glimmer of Ogden. I would be willing to bet that you can’t do it.

Yet, despite the thick haze that envelops the majority of the states population every year, Barrus is working hard to make sure that the Air Quality Board has a more difficult time cleaning up the air. You see, H.B. 191 is designed to limit the activities of what this board can do – you know, establish standards and maximums for how much cars and industry can, put into the air and require people to literally clean up their act when they are putting to much crap in the air.

By adding four little lines, Representative Barrus is effectively tying the hands of the Air Quality Board. The bill would not allow the Board to: do anything that could lead to statutory changes (you know, like actually requiring people to implement the rules they set forth), requires the state to spend more than $50,000 (like by setting an example and requiring fleet vehicles to be cleaner), legally binding the state to a new or substantially different policy (no room for innovation here), or imposes a legal duty on a person in the state (again, we can’t have people actually have to pay for violations of air quality standards).

This is a bad bill that will probably just sail through as the majority of legislators either don’t care or are hostile to anything pro-environment. I hope these legislators enjoy the thick air they will be passing on to their grandchildren.