One Utah

The New York Times reports on March 19 that whereas the Bush administration sold the Iraq war to the congress as a $50 billion investment, the actual costs are more like–
1.) ultra-conservative Pentagon estimate: $600 billion and counting
(note: this Honest Abe estimate categorically excludes “extras” such as operations in the war zone, [...]

It is apparent that Utah is for sale. Our state is the only state in the Union now identified as being willing to continue as the nation’s nuclear dump site, and now the world’s site as well, without protest and defensive acts by our political leaders.
What will Virginia do with its nuclear leftovers? It doesn’t [...]

So it turns out that some Utah legislators stand to make big bucks on a decision they may decisively influence to bring nuclear power to Utah. We’ve done without this monstrously bad source of power all these years.
Most fundamentally, we still don’t know how to handle nuclear waste without it constituting a huge threat to [...]

As Utah anxiously watches modern-day robber baron Robert Murray cry to his mommy over those nasty things Governor Huntsman said about him, punitively lay off our fellow citizens and shutter his death-trap mines, we all need to read Jeff Goodell’s excellent reality check on coal: The future for Utah is not coal but the extraordinary [...]

The Monday morning quarterbacking on the Huntington mine fiasco began that first Monday morning August 6. Two Monday mornings later, the situation is worse than ever and there’s no answer in sight. Sound familiar? It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and as my earlier post shows, the handling of [...]

In the past, I’ve written about my support for clean election laws.
According to the Lt. Governor’s Office financial disclosure site, in 2006 various Utah Reps spending ranged widely (I’m doing some rounding).  David Litvack spent almost $26,000 on his campaign; Curtis Oda spent $16,600 on his; Paul Ray spent $17,000; Aaron Tilton spent just under $5,000; [...]

When is fighting for what you believe admirable and right or just plain stupid and self-destructive? The Bush Administration and the people and leaders of Utah are finding that out right now. As the U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial entities knock down case after case of administration environmental chicanery and other abuses of power, [...]

Today, the Utah Senate voted 23-6 in favor of Senate Bill 155, exempting EnergySolutions from the oversight of the Legislature, the Governor, and Tooele County for any nuclear waste expansion on its current dumpsite.
SB 155 carves out exemptions to state law specifically for EnergySolutions so that the company can undergo massive expansions without getting the [...]