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INDEX

HIGH: 35

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VOL. 169 / NO. 196

TOP UTAH SUPERSTARS

WE MET THIS YEAR

PROVO-BASED MUSICIAN

ROBBIE CONNOLLY, RIGHT,

IS ONE OF 2018’S FEATURED

UTAHNS, ALONG WITH BON

JOVI’S BASSIST, THE ‘ROLLER-

BLADE KING’ AND MANY MORE

FAMILY C1

TRUMP: SHUTDOWN IN PLACE UNTIL THERE’S A WALL

PRESIDENT VOWS TO KEEP PARTS OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

CLOSED UNTIL DEMOCRATS OFFER FUNDING FOR WALL

NATION A2

UTAH HAS PLENTY OF ‘BLING’ FROM MINING

THE STATE GENERATED $3.3 BILLION FROM MINING IN 2017,

MAKING UTAH’S INDUSTRY ONE OF THE HIGHEST IN THE U.S.

LOCAL B1

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2018 DESERETNEWS.COMSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

JAZZ FANS GET A NICE CHRISTMAS

GIFT WITH WIN OVER PORTLAND

JAE CROWDER HELPED UTAH EARN ACOMFORTABLE 117-94 VICTORY OVERTHE TRAIL BLAZERS ON TUESDAY NIGHT

SPORTS D1

ADVANTAGES TO BUYING

A HOME IN WINTER

EXPERTS SAY THE COLDMONTHS USUALLY BRINGFEWER BUYERS ANDMOTIVATED SELLERS

LOCAL B1

The politics ofclean air

QILING WANG, DESERET NEWS

Smog covers Salt Lake City during an inversion. A 2017 survey showed air quality as the top reason tech employees might leave Utah.

What’s stopping the Legislature from solving the Utah air pollution problem?

“We can’t legislate geography,”Handy said. At the time, hethought air quality wasn’t a bigdeal and only affected a smallnumber of people with bad lungs.Nearly eight years later, the state

representative is embarrassed bythat response. He’s come a longway, he says, in realizing there’s alot the Legislature can do to makethe air cleaner — without levelingthe Wasatch Mountains — andthat bad air affects everyone whobreathes it.Handy isn’t an outlier among

Republicans; bipartisan collabora-tion on clean air solutions has be-come the norm. The Legislature’sClean Air Caucus, a bipartisangroup founded five years ago byRep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek,attracted more Democrats at thestart, but now attendance is split,Handy said.There have been more clean air

bills in the past five years thanthe rest of the state’s historycombined, according to Sen. ToddWeiler, R-Woods Cross. Ten of 51clean air bills that have passed

since 2014 were sponsored byboth a Republican and a Demo-crat. Only one was sponsored bytwo Democrats, and the rest weresponsored by two Republicans.“It’s important that we’re doing

this in a bipartisan way,” Arentsaid. “We don’t get everythingwe want, but we’ve been verysuccessful.”But if most elected officials

agree air quality is a problemfor our state and the Legislaturehas a responsibility to help fix it,why are we still staring into an

interminable dirty haze?Particulate matter pollution has

been cut in half since the 1980s,but ozone pollution levels in 2017and 2018 were the worst in a de-cade, partly due to hotter and drierweather. If Utah doesn’t meet theEPA’s standards for both pollutantsin the next few years, the state willbe subject to more rigorous federalregulations, and concerned legisla-tors, like Handy, fear the controlswill strangle industry.

· BY ERICA EVANSDESERET NEWS

SALT LAKE CITY —

n 2011, Rep. Steve Handy, a Repub-

lican who represents Layton, got a

phone call from a constituent whose

wife was sick. The caller asked

Handy what he was doing about the

dangerous pollution that clouds the

Salt Lake Valley every winter.

Air quality

Low salaries

Utah culture

Weather

Traffic congestion

Not enough diversity

Lack of entertainment

Top reasons techemployees saytheymightwant to leaveUtahFrom a 2017 survey of employees of high-tech companies at the Point of the Mountain

69%50%

39%39%38%

31%27%

SOURCE: Envision Utah

I

AIR A4

U.S.: 2ndimmigrantchild diesin custody

· BY NOMAAN MERCHANTASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON —An 8-year-old boyfrom Guatemala died in govern-ment custody in New Mexico earlyTuesday, U.S. immigration authori-ties said, marking the second deathof an immigrant child in detentionthis month.The death came during an ongo-

ing dispute over border securityand with a partial governmentshutdown underway over PresidentDonald Trump’s request for borderwall funding.U.S. Customs and Border Protec-

tion said the boy showed “signs ofpotential illness” on Monday andwas taken with his father to a hos-pital in Alamogordo, New Mexico,where he was diagnosed with a coldand a fever. The boy was prescribedamoxicillin and Ibuprofen and

BOY’S DEATH IS 2ND FROM

GUATEMALA THIS MONTH

CHILD A8

Survivors oftsunami stilljittery as deathtoll hits 429· BY NINIEK KARMINI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUMUR, Indonesia—Panickedresidents, police and soldiers in thisremote fishing village clobbered bya devastating weekend tsunami ranto higher ground Tuesday, shouting“Water is coming! Water is coming!”and reciting verses from the Quran asemergency messages were broadcastover mosque speakers.It proved to be a false alarm, but a

similar frenzy broke out in TanjungLesung, another tsunami-strickenarea located hours away, as unsettledsurvivors of the disaster remainedtraumatized by a tragedy that killedmore than 420 people and left thou-sands homeless.Meanwhile, Christmas celebrations

were replaced by somber prayers, aschurch leaders called on Christiansacross Indonesia, the world’s mostpopulous Muslim nation, to pray for

TSUNAMI A8

AIRFROM A1

Despite what has been accom-plished, Handy said the changein attitudes has been slow, even“glacial.” There are still legislatorsthat don’t make air quality a pri-ority, even though polling by thenonprofit Envision Utah showsair quality is a top concern forUtahns, ranking above economicdevelopment in 2014 and aboveeducation in 2015.As it stands, air quality funding

is just 0.16 percent of the 2019 en-acted state budget and equivalentto 1.7 percent of road funding, ac-cording to Bryce Bird, director ofthe Utah Division of Air Quality.Earlier this month, Gov. Gary

Herbert signaled the problemdeserves more of our resourceswith a 2020 budget recommenda-tion of $100 million for air qualityprojects. The amount is still afraction of the $19 billion budgetbut more than 10 times what hasbeen recommended in previousyears.“We are very fortunate that

Utah’s successes and subsequentbudget surplus enables us to makethis huge down payment towardcleaner air,” said Paul Edwards,deputy chief of staff over com-munications and policy for thegovernor.The governor’s budget is just

a proposal, however. It’s still upto the Legislature to decide howour state’s money will actually beused. In 2017, for example, theLegislature approved about halfof the $2.2 million the governorrecommended for air qualitymonitoring and compliancewhile fully funding a $6.2 milliontechnical support center for theDepartment of EnvironmentalQuality.And even though Republicans

and Democrats are workingtogether, partisan ideologiesstill drive debate on clean air inUtah and divide legislators onsolutions. While Democrats aremore likely to favor a top-downregulatory approach, Republicansare more likely to favor incentivesthat let the free market driveimprovements, state representa-tives such as Rep. Tim Hawkes,R-Centerville, said.Disagreement can prevent seem-

ingly simple fixes from getting offthe ground, said Ashley Soltysiak,director of the Utah chapter of theSierra Club. While 51 clean airbills have passed in the past fiveyears, 30 have been rejected bythe Legislature, and several thatpassed took multiple years to getapproved because they weren’tprioritized.In the meantime, poor air quali-

ty shortens lives, increases healthcare costs and leads to moremissed work and school days,according to Dr. Brian Moenchof Utah Physicians for a HealthyEnvironment. Medical researchis revealing more and morenegative health effects, he said. Arecent study from University ofUtah Health found women livingalong the Wasatch Front had a 16percent higher risk of miscarriageafter short-term air pollutionexposure.Some legislators who vote no

on air quality bills have pointedto limited funding. Some areworried about placing the burdenon families by making it moreexpensive to drive or buy a home.And others are hesitant becausethey don’t think the governmentshould hinder citizens’ freedom todo and buy what they want.Ultimately, air quality is a

political issue, even if legislatorsdon’t want to acknowledge it, saidSoltysiak.

“It’s political because thereare short-term gains to be madewithout considering the long-termimplications of those decisions.It’s a prioritization of the momentrather than thinking about futuregenerations,” she said. “Therehas been progress; that is notinsignificant. But we still have along way to go.”

Is air quality really theLegislature’s problem?

While legislators agree its partof their job to ensure Utah’s airis clean enough to breathe, somealso point to individuals’ respon-sibility to change their pollutinghabits.“The Legislature has a role to

play for sure, but the public ingeneral can play the biggest rolewith their actions,” said Rep.Mike Schultz, R-Hooper. Becauseclose to half of emissions comefrom vehicle sources, Schultzrecommends Utahns reduce cartrips and avoid idling.Although individual behavior

modifications could have the mostsignificant impact on air quality,people won’t make the decision tochange on their own, as indi-cated by data from Utah CleanAir Partnership. A 2018 pollshowed 52 percent of people arewilling to take some measures toimprove air quality, but only if it isconvenient or saves them money.The most common reasons fornot taking public transit were: “in-convenient locations,” “adds timeto commute” and “inconvenientschedule.”Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake

City, said the Legislature needsto make transit more accessible,especially on days when air qual-ity is the worst. That’s why he’sproposing a program that wouldmake transit free on certain daysduring the winter. It’s not the firsttime he’s presented the idea. Hefirst brought the concept to theLegislature six years ago, with asuggested $6 million price tag tocover free fares for two months.But Briscoe’s colleagues couldn’tget behind the cost without proofof how much the program wouldreduce pollution, he said. Aftertesting the concept in 2017 anddemonstrating that free faresincreased UTA ridership by 23percent, Briscoe is planning torun a scaled-back version of thebill. This time, he’s asking for just$1 million to cover $70,000 a dayin lost fares for UTA for 14 days.“This legislation is really about

trying to change behavior,”Briscoe said. “We are not going tochange air quality by continuingto live the way we live, so we’reasking people to try getting out oftheir cars.”The Division of Air Quality

can’t solve the pollution problemwithout the Legislature’s supporteither. Last session, the Leg-islature approved a $350,000funding increase for the divisionto hire three new scientists.The division has spent the yearworking on a State Implementa-tion Plan, required by the CleanAir Act, that will bring Utahinto compliance with federal airpollution standards and involvestechnical controls to limit emis-sions from industrial equipmentlike boilers. But several experts,including Joro Walker, generalcounsel for Western ResourceAdvocates, an environmentaladvocacy group based in Boulder,Colorado, doubt whether theplan will work.She and other advocates do

not think the requirements forindustry sources, like refineries,are strict enough. They arguethat whether we attain federal

standards next year may dependmainly on weather conditions.Given current emissions alongthe Wasatch Front, pollution willlikely exceed healthy levels againif an inversion sets in, she said.Another problem, according to

Walker, is that even with all themeasures proposed in the plan,the Division of Air Quality pre-dicts the Rose Park neighborhoodwill still experience dangerous airpollution levels.“That is one of our disadvan-

taged communities,” said Walker.Rose Park residents dispropor-tionately bear the burden of pol-lution because of their proximityto highways, refineries and theairport, as well as the fact thatmore individuals have older carsand rely on wood burning to sup-plement heating costs, she said.If the state doesn’t meet its goals

in the next few years, the EPA willcreate a Federal ImplementationPlan which will apply all existingpollution control measures toUtah and could have a negativeimpact on economic development,according to Soltysiak.Walker doubts Utah would ever

be subject to a Federal Implemen-tation Plan and pointed out thatthere are interim steps that wouldoccur first.According to Soltysiak however,

the threat is real. Essentially anypollution control measure that hasbeen adopted in any other statecould be applied here in Utah insuch a case. It would mean settingrigorous standards impactingindustry, smaller business andresidents alike, she said.“That is precisely what big

industry wants to avoid becauseit puts anything on the table,”said Soltysiak. “We are at the lastpoint where we can choose to beprogressive, or someone else willcome in and tell us what we haveto do.”In order to prevent the state

from losing control, it’s up to theLegislature to find air qualitysolutions that overcome typicalbarriers.

Why the Legislaturehasn’t done more

In 2015, Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, hadan idea to raise money for airquality initiatives and discouragedriving: adding $2.50 to therecycling fee imposed on tirespurchased in the state. It seemedsimple enough, and Chavez-Houck was confident it would bewell-received. But the bill didn’teven make it out of the HouseRules Committee.Chavez-Houck was not

prepared for the aggressive push-back from rental car companiesand farmers who need tires fortractors. Lobbyists argued thesebusinesses would be unfairlyimpacted because they need tiresto operate.Air quality advocates like

Soltysiak said home buildingis another industry affected byclean air legislation. Sensitivityto the impact on builders canbe a challenge when updatingbuilding codes and raising energyefficiency standards.Tension between advocates

and home builders was manifestin 2016 when Rep. RebeccaEdwards, R-North Salt Lake,sponsored a bill titled, “BuildingCode Amendments,” whichcalled for better insulation andtighter construction amongother things. Edwards’ plan wasproposed to challenge a lessstringent building code update,HB 316, that extended the period

QILING WANG, DESERET NEWS

Vicki Bennett, director of the Salt Lake City Department of Sustainability, left, talks to TeriNewell, deputy director of Utah Department of Transportation, on Dec. 6.

AIR A5

A4 DESERET NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2018

Stewart BlumHealthCorrespondence

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The politics of clean air

AIRFROM A4

of renewal from every three yearsto every six years, making it evenharder to alter building codes inthe future.Edwards’ bill failed; the other

succeeded with the support ofthe Home Builders Associationand Republican leaders in thebusiness of buildings, like SenatePresident Wayne Niederhauser,R-Sandy, a real estate developer,and Speaker of the House GregHughes, R-Draper, who worksin construction and propertymanagement.Hughes and Niederhauser could

not be reached for comment.“From the Home Builders

Association, we’ve heard themsay we don’t want to price peopleout of homes,” Soltysiak said.“My response to that would be:Having a more efficient homehelps a family stay in the homelonger. Ultimately, it makes thehome more affordable.”Jaren Davis, executive officer

of the Salt Lake Home BuildersAssociation, said the group abso-lutely supports rules that makethe air cleaner and save peoplemoney but the debate becomesmore complicated when it comesto expensive measures that haveminimal impact on the air. Forevery $1,000 added to the costof a home in Utah, about 1,700buyers are priced out, accordingto calculations from the NationalAssociation of Homebuilders.One building code update that

goes into effect in January andinvolves air exchanges per hourwill cost thousands of dollars toimplement in multi-family unitsand only leads to $12 of energysavings per year, said Schultz,a home builder by profession,citing calculations by indepen-dent energy testing companyProvident Energy.“We need to focus our efforts

on things that move the needleand take everything into consid-eration. It’s about finding a bal-ance that will make a difference,”Schultz said.But there’s another side to the

economic equation that is moredifficult to quantify. TheresaFoxley, president of the Econom-ic Development Corporation ofUtah said poor air quality makesit harder for companies to recruitand retain talent. Polling byEnvision Utah from 2017 showsair quality is the top reasonhigh-tech employees in the Pointof the Mountain area considerleaving the state.But just how much business

Utah is missing out on, as well asthings like increased health carecosts due to air quality are hardto calculate, said Chavez-Houck.“It’s hard to say how beneficial

legislation will be in terms ofoverall economic impact, where-as a rental car company canimmediately calculate the cost ofpaying more for tires,” Chavez-Houck said.

Personal freedom

The “Utah way,” according toSen. Wayne Harper R-Taylorsville,

refers to Utahns’ propensity forcompromise and ability to findsolutions to challenging problems.But it also means that we likepolicies that align with Westernvalues, like personal freedom, hesaid.“One of the great benefits

and heritage in America isour ability to live, work, play,commute and move all aroundthis country and basically createa lifestyle in an environmentthat we want to live in,” saidHarper. “It goes back to the oldstatement: If you want a future,young man, go west!”The Utah way also implies

our methods are fundamentallydifferent than say, the Califor-nia way. Some legislators sayCalifornia is too heavy-handedin enforcing regulation, saidAshley Miller, policy director forBreathe Utah.When Rep. Steve Eliason,

R-Sandy, tried to run a bill lastyear to adopt California’s ZeroEmissions Vehicle program,which would have made electriccars cheaper and more plenti-ful in the state of Utah, he raninto a brick wall. Critics of theproposal worried the programwould force vehicles on dealersthat could not sell them.The area of air quality policy

where the idea of personalfreedom comes into play most iswood burning, advocates agree.In 2015, the Division of Air

Quality floated the idea of aseasonal ban on wood burningbecause of the significant impactsmoke has on our air. TheLegislature responded with whatwas essentially, a ban on a ban,outlawing future bills that com-

pletely prohibited wood burning— even though we already have“mandatory no burn days” whenair pollution is high. The follow-ing year, the Legislature passeda culinary wood smoke regula-tion that made fires permissibleany time of the year for restau-rants with wood-fired ovens. Butthe law was written so broadlythat it protected anyone whowas roasting marshmallows overa fire, even on a red “no burn”day, Soltysiak said.“There’s a sort of libertarian

mentality that this is my choiceto burn wood, my right,” saidSoltysiak. “But no one has theright to pollute their local air-shed and ruin the quality of lifefor their neighbors.”As more people see the right

to clean air as paramount to theright to light a fire or drive apolluting vehicle, attitudes arechanging, Soltysiak said.The Legislature also inter-

vened in 2012 when Salt LakeCity made it illegal to leave a caridling for more than two min-utes. The Legislature respondedby creating a law that said anoutright ban was not allowed.Rather, anti-idling ordinances,which several cities have nowadopted, had to be educationalin nature, and an individual hadto be caught idling three timesbefore there could be any type ofsanction.“Yes, there’s always things that

we should do and we want to dobecause we want to make surethat air or water or whatever itmay be is clean and healthy,”Harper said. “But we don’t wantto stymie our ability to live asAmericans.”

What are our priorities?

In the past, a major barrier toclean air bills has been funding.Legislators have struggled tobalance air quality with otherpriorities, like education. Butthis year, with the governorrecommending $100 million beused for air quality projects,that might not be the case. Still,legislators will have to decidewhether that money would bebest used for programs thegovernor has suggested, like thewood stove exchange programthat gives citizens up to $3,800to convert their existing fire-place or wood stove to a naturalgas or propane device.Legislators like Eliason are

interested in getting the mostbang for the taxpayer’s buck.“There’s a desire to make

improvements, but it’s findingpolicy ideas that will be justifiedby the cost,” said Eliason. “Dowe want to pay to move all therefineries to the west desert?That would solve the problem,but we only have so many dol-lars every session.”Last session, Handy tried to

get money to start a partnershipwith Union Pacific that wouldhelp them replace a few of theirdirtiest locomotives calledfreight switchers. But he wasunsuccessful because the $4 mil-lion cost was too high. Criticsdidn’t think the money shouldgo to a multibillion-dollarcompany that was capable ofmaking changes on its own.However, the Clean Air Actprohibits state regulation ofrailroad companies, so it isimpossible for the government

to compel Union Pacific to cleanup its machinery. Handy will bepitching the idea again in 2019.Arent believes some of the

money allocated to corporationsin the form of economic devel-opment tax incentives (morethan $500 million in 2018)would be better utilized for airquality projects. Even thoughthe majority of clean air fundingrequests have been approvedin recent years, funding wasless than what was asked for insome cases, she said.To solve the problem of lack of

funding for clean air once andfor all, Sen. Briscoe is workingon a carbon tax bill for 2019.The money from taxing emis-sions would be used to createa new clean air fund for publictransportation projects andelectric vehicle incentives, forexample. It would also be usedto eliminate sales tax on food orincrease retirement tax credits.The idea, Briscoe admits,

is forward thinking for Utah’scurrent political climate, buthe believes a carbon tax is ulti-mately inevitable for our regionand the rest of the country.“It’s my responsibility to dis-

cuss things that I think shouldbe discussed,” said Briscoe.“What a boring world if the onlylegislation people led was stuffyou knew would pass.”Harper says Utahns are ready

for innovative solutions andrecognizes bipartisan collabora-tion will help get Utah’s air tohealthy levels and keep it there.“Both sides need to come to

a better understanding. Theyneed to sit down together andevaluate: This is the benefit for

SPENSER HEAPS, DESERET NEWS

Rep. Stephen Handy, R-Layton, once said he “can’t legislate geography” when it comes to air quality. He is now an advocate of clean air.

that cost,” said Harper. “TheUtah way is that instead ofyelling at each other across theaisle, we sit down and we find asolution together. And then wedo it.”EMAIL: eevans@deseretnews.comTWITTER: elevansericaindustry

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2018 DESERET NEWS A5

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4. Get an app for that. Start bydownloading your financialinstitution’s mobile banking app tomake managing your money abreeze. Then research apps likeMint, You Need a Budget (YNAB),Acorns and more to help you trackspending, create a budget, reducedebt and save/invest your money.

5. Unsubscribe from promotion-al messaging to reduce impulsebuying. Instead of saving $5 whenyou spend $50, save $50 by optingout of that email ad, coupon maileror push notification.

6. Plan your meals. Create aweekly menu to prevent moneyfrom leaking out of your checkingaccount as a result of unbudgetedfast food and restaurant dining. Useyour meal planning time toresearch recipes that fit yourbudget.

7. Speed up dinner. Try preparinga few meals on the weekend forquick warmup dinners throughoutthe week. Also, consider a pressurecooker — they reduce cooking time,so you’ll be less likely to eat outwhen your family convinces youthey can’t possibly survive anotherminute without food. (SearchInstant Pot or pressure cookerrecipes on Pinterest forinspiration.)

8. Pack your lunch the nightbefore so you won’t be tempted tohit the drive-through after runningout of time during the morningrush.

Choose a few of these tips to boostyour budget and move closer toyour goals in 2019.

8 Easy Ways toBoost Your Budget

in 2019

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It’s time to clean up.

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