In a recent letter to the editor, Paul Young argued that every taxpayer, teacher and parent should support Andalex's proposed coal mine on the Kaiparowits Plateau in southern Utah. The proposal involves a Dutch-owned coal company mining 2.5 million tons of coal annually for export to the Pacific Rim.
Should Utah taxpayers support the mine? According to the Utah Office of Planning and Budget, the mine would require taxpayer subsidies within the state of Utah to the tune of more than $110 million, not including many of the road-related infrastructure needs this project would necessitate.This translates into, at a minimum, a $370,000 subsidy for each Utahn who will be directly employed by the mine. Over the long-term, coal development on the Kaiparowits Plateau will adversely affect central Utah's existing coal-based economy through dislocation of production, work force and tax base. State support for the Andalex project is fiscally imprudent.
Should teachers support the mine? According to OPB, the mine will boost the education permanent fund by $16.7 million. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research estimates that 49 percent of general expenditures by the state goes to education. Assuming foregone subsidies of more than $110 million by the state for the Andalex project, education will have to give up $54.9 million to make $16.7 million.
Costs outweigh benefits for Utah's education interests. The project would generate only a fraction of 1 percent of the money that comes to education from trust lands, or just one-thousandth of 1 percent of the entire education budget.
Should parents support the mine? According to the 1980 Kaiparowits Coal Development and Transportation Study, truck traffic associated with the haulage of the Andalex coal will cause as many as 150 additional accidents on southern Utah's roadways each year. Andalex's coal haul distances, however, are significantly longer, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that the trucks Andalex intends to utilize are "two to three times as likely as other big trucks to be in crashes," thereby making the 1980 accident estimate a low one, according to published statistics.
The answer to all three questions is a resounding "no." Ignoring for a moment the disastrous environmental impacts that the Andalex project would generate in the scenic and biologically diverse Kaiparowits area, it would cause a significant safety hazard on southern Utah's roadways and an outrageous taxpayer liability for all Utahns.
Ken Rait,
Issues director
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance