A new year is a time for making meaningful and attainable resolutions. Here are three interconnected resolutions that will make Salt Lake City healthier, prettier and less expensive.
Resolution #1: Help clean up Salt Lake’s winter inversion
The ugly umbrella of smog that hovers over Salt Lake’s valley almost daily is not new. Salt Lake City is one of the most polluted cities in America. The pollution is more than an eyesore — it’s a health risk that damages our lungs and hearts with every breath we take. And if we don’t think through things and change what we are doing, the pollution problem is only going to get worse.
When I drive on I-215, I am met by overpass electronic signs that helpfully suggest that I “reduce driving and carpool this week.” But we need a more substantial plan to address our pollution problem than UDOT’s TravelWise initiative, which relies on do-gooders to voluntarily drive less. Winter inversion will improve when we seriously resolve to address its root causes — see the following resolutions below.
Resolution #2: Fight Rocky Mountain Power’s rate increases
Rocky Mountain Power has requested a 28% increase in your monthly electricity bill. Ten percent of this has already been implemented in July 2024 (see the “Energy Balancing Account” line item in your July 2024 bill). Another increase of 18% is coming in February 2025.
Before the rate increase, the average Utahn paid $121 per month for their electricity. After the rate increases, Utahns will pay $36 more or $157 per month.
RMP justifies the rate increase based on fuel supply disruptions, price volatility and fire-related damage to infrastructure, most of which were caused by events related to climate change — floods, drought, hurricanes, tornados and high temperatures. RMP suggests that climate change is an “exogenous” event that they have no part in causing. But that’s simply a bald-faced lie.
Science shows that burning fossil fuels, which liberates carbon dioxide (CO2), is the primary driver of climate change. The fossil fuel industry has known this fact for over 50 years.
Yet despite this knowledge and the losses they have sustained from climate-change-related events, PacifiCorp’s — which owns RMP — updated 2023 integrated resource plan (IRP) proposes burning more coal, building less solar and wind electricity capacity and reducing battery capacity compared to their original 2023 IRP. This will substantially increase CO2 emissions and is not in alignment with industry trends, whose broad goal is to reduce C02 emissions to 50% of 2005 levels by 2030.
The increase in CO2 emissions will predictably contribute to further climate related losses, which PacifiCorp may then try again to pass off to consumers (us). That’s insane. We the consumers, who RMP/PacifiCorp exists to serve, need to loudly say, “No way!” We don’t need to burn more fossil fuel that fuels more climate-related disasters that will lead to more rate increases and more polluted air. We need to do just the opposite. We must insist that RMP builds more solar, wind and hydroelectric — and fast.
Resolution #3: Buy and drive electric vehicles
An analysis by Auto News found that the five-year total cost of ownership in Utah for an average internal combustion engine car powered by gasoline is $7,113 more than an average electric vehicle (EV) — a savings of $118 per month if you drive an EV. Using J.D. Power’s EV savings calculator, you can estimate more specifically your five-year EV savings based on zip code and make of vehicle. The advantages of an EV don’t stop here.
If you drive an EV, you can ignore UDOT’s TravelWise signs. You can drive whenever you want, and you won’t be contributing to the smog overhead or the record-setting temperatures we now experience almost every summer or make pedestrians gag on your tailpipe emissions.
This is a virtuous circle, but you don’t have to be virtuous to participate. Just follow the above self-serving economics — and then imagine.
Imagine a winter in Salt Lake City in 15 to 20 years, where power companies are generating electricity predominately from renewable sources, many more homeowners have solar panels on their roofs and most drivers are whipping around the city in their non-polluting EVs. See your bank account with more money in it. Visualize our majestic mountains, no longer obscured by winter pollution.
It’s not a dream. As long as we resolve to hold RMP/PacifiCorp and our legislators accountable and follow the clear economic signs, we can make it happen.