Utah Congressmen Jim Matheson and Jason Chaffetz were among House lawmakers voting this morning in favor of a motion to move the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline forward as part of a transportation bill. Speaking on the house floor last night, Matheson said contrary to what many believe, this product is already being transported to the United States.
International regulators and experts on nuclear power plant safety have converged in Salt Lake City. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, representatives from 37 countries are here to talk about increased safety expectations following last year’s meltdown in Japan.
Natural gas development is about to increase significantly in Utah. Tuesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved a major drilling project the Obama Administration says will create thousands of jobs while protecting the environment. KCPW’s Jessica Gail reports on the compromises made to protect wildlife and air quality throughout the project.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert has a new energy advisor and at least one environmental group is already calling foul. Herbert announced today that Cody Stewart, who’s currently serving as Lieutenant Governor Greg Bell’s Chief of Staff, will help the governor increase energy development in the state. But as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, HEAL Utah says his interests are with big oil and gas.
Salt Lake City is partnering with five other Wasatch Front cities and counties to launch the “Wasatch Solar Challenge” after receiving a $400,000 Department of Energy grant aimed at reducing the cost of developing solar energy.
Usually, political candidates who want to go to Washington pledge to put Utah first. But University of Utah engineering professor Joe Andrade, a candidate for the state’s 2nd Congressional District, says he’d put Utah third. He’s says it’s the planet that comes first.
EnergySolutions will have a hand in cleaning up radioactively contaminated seawater at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan that was used to cool nuclear reactors after an earthquake and tsunami severely damaged the plant last year. The company will now work with Toshiba to decontaminate about 40 million gallons of water.
This week, state lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed a series of bills aimed at taking over public lands from the federal government, which currently controls roughly two-thirds of the entire state. But a top federal official who oversees those public lands doesn’t think their efforts will amount to a hill of beans.
A new study in Eastern Utah’s energy-rich Uintah Basin is being called the most comprehensive air quality study ever done in Utah. And the study includes participation by oil and gas drillers who extract resources from the basin. We talked with Lowell Braxton of the Western Energy Alliance about how the industry is taking part.
Republican Sean Reyes wants to be Utah’s next Attorney General. He counts among his accomplishments becoming one of the first minority attorneys in the state to make partner at a major law firm and co-founding an organization to help Utahns combat fraud. He joined us in the studio to talk about where he stands on the important issues.
