Welcome to the 15th day on the Hill.
There’s only 30 days left!
Observations from the Hill
AIR QUALITY: The Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee heard a wide-ranging update from the Division of Air Quality.
The good news: Utah’s overall emissions are trending down, and PM2.5 pollution per person has been cut in half since 2010. The less-good news: ozone pollution has basically plateaued in recent years, thanks in part to hotter, drier summers and pollution drifting in from elsewhere. Climate change remains an uninvited guest at every air quality conversation, whether lawmakers say its name or not.
One bright spot worth flagging: the state is building out a new Dust Observation Research Network, with a strong focus on dust coming off the Great Salt Lake and the West Desert. Six monitors are already in place, more are coming, and yes, this was funded last year. File under “things we should have done sooner.”
ENERGY: The Office of Energy Development delivered what can only be described as a very enthusiastic presentation.
Utah leaders are pushing hard to position the state as a national energy powerhouse, with major emphasis on nuclear partnerships, critical minerals, and geothermal development. Geothermal actually stood out as a genuinely promising piece, especially with talk of district heating at The Point and FERVO selling power as soon as this year.
But the presentation also made clear that coal is not going quietly into that good night. Officials stressed the importance of coal as “baseload” energy and talked openly about efforts to get coal plants back online. Clean energy, meet the state’s complicated relationship with the past.
CON COURT: House leadership used a rules mechanism to bring HB 392, the controversial constitutional court bill, to the top of the 3rd Reading Calendar, making all the pro-democracy lobbyists scramble to the House gallery or their computers to watch the debate on the bill. But instead of charging ahead, lawmakers unveiled a dramatically different substitute.
Rather than creating a whole new constitutional court, the new version would set up an ad hoc panel of judges drawn from districts across the state. The bill sponsor, Rep. Matt MacPherson pitched it as a way to add resources and flexibility for the courts, and said they’re working with judicial leadership and the public. Translation: the blowback to the original version landed, loudly.
But don’t worry, the new bill still allows the Attorney General, Governor, or Legislature to make a determination that a case is of “statewide importance” and then motion to remove the case to one of these ad-hoc panels, even if they aren’t a party to the case itself. Such a determination is also not subject to judicial review.
The substitute version was adopted, then promptly circled so lawmakers could “digest” the changes. Expect this one back soon. The separation-of-powers chess match is very much still on.
WATER PROTESTS: The House passed HB 60, a bill limiting the role of the State Engineer in reviewing water rights applications. Environmental and conservation groups have raised concerns about the bill limiting the State Engineer from looking at broader contexts to determine whether to grant applications, as well as the bill’s limiting of public protests to the new categories that the State Engineer is limited to reviewing.
Despite the bill sponsor making many assurances that his substitute bill clarified and solved those concerns, I’m not seeing it by my quick review of the substitute language. It still looks like the State Engineer is limited to consider water quality, quantity, and availability, and that the State Engineer is only allowed to consider public protests that are related to one of those three areas.
The bill passed the House by a vote of 54-17. Expect this controversial bill to continue simmering as it starts its journey through the Senate.
PUBLIC LANDS: In one of the least controversial moments of the day, the House unanimously passed HB 64, which creates a statutory process for counties to flag culturally or scientifically significant sites on school trust lands before they’re sold off. After years of friction between SITLA and local communities, lawmakers actually found common ground.
FUGITIVE DUST: After removing all teeth from the bill that would have helped improve air quality, the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee advanced HB 378, a fugitive dust bill originally aimed at helping communities surrounded by gravel pits and mining operations. The original bill would have increased transparency, signage, mitigation requirements, and compliance, but now just allows the Division of Air Quality to impose an aggregate compliance fee.
The hearing featured a surprisingly candid moment when one lawmaker shrugged and said, “sometimes we have to live with what we don’t like.” Residents dealing with dust in their lungs may not find that particularly comforting, but the bill ultimately moved forward with broad industry support. Looks like the lobbyists won on this one.
