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.
The oil and gas-rich Uinta Basin in eastern Utahis the focus of a new air quality study, one that’s being called the most comprehensive air quality study ever in the state. It’s bringing together Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and oil and gas producers to figure out the region’s wintertime ozone pollution is so bad. KCPW’s Jeff Robinson spoke with Bryce Bird, Director of the Utah Division of Air Quality.
One state lawmaker’s attempt to bring Utah’s residential building codes up to date hasn’t been assigned a committee hearing, despite widespread support from local governments, businesses and residents. Republican Representative Fred Cox says adopting the latest building codes for new homes is important for public safety and energy cost savings, but as KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, at least one organization is fighting the change, saying it would cost homeowners too much.
A new, statewide initiative to improve air quality won’t include any new regulations, but purely voluntary efforts. As Utah Governor Gary Herbert announced Tuesday, the Utah Clean Air Partnership, or U-CAIR, is about getting individual Utahns to examine how they can make improvements.
Property owners in Utah could be forced to sell their land for new energy-related purposes if a proposed bill makes it out of the Utah Legislature this year. Republican Representative Mike Noel is the sponsor of House Bill 74, which would allow for eminent domain actions to be brought against a landowner to build roads that are needed for the development, production or exploration of oil or natural gas.
President Obama’s State of the Union address last night touched on some themes that could please some of Utah’s elected officials in Washington, like expanding domestic energy access. But do they think he has the track record to get it done? KCPW’s Jeff Robinson talked with one of them, Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson, to get his reaction to the address last night.
The state of Utah has given a green light on water rights to Blue Castle Holdings, which wants to build a nuclear power plant in Green River. In the first half of the show, we’ll talk with the company’s CEO Aaron Tilton about the economic and energy upside and safety details of the proposal.…
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