Utah’s House yesterday voted to support HJR21 Joint Resolution on Energy Policy, which calls for Utah to withdraw from Climate Change Initiative.
Initially the Resolution used words like “conspiracy”, claiming that efforts were afoot to manipulate climate change data.
Solve Climate, a publication on daily climate news and anaylsis, reports on action by Utah’s lawmakers:
Among other things, the resolution claims there is “a well organized and ongoing effort to manipulate global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome.”
A last-minute amendment removed the words “conspiracy,” “gravy train” and “tricks,” but the statements remaining are still inflammatory, echoing the claims of conservative groups such as the Heartland Institute, Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), and Utah’s Sutherland Institute.
A group of Brigham Young University scientists were so disturbed by the wording of the resolution, HJR 12, that they wrote to the legislature last week highlighting several inaccuracies and urging the legislature to reconsider.
“Even if all the political solutions proposed so far are flawed, this does not justify politicians in attacking the science that indicates there is almost certainly a serious problem,” the scientists told lawmakers.
The article continues to discuss Utah’s possible motives behind this resolution, along with a transcript of Rep. Mike Noel confronting a University of Utah’s Bioengineering professor’s opposition to the Resolution (Noel is reported, too, to have contacted Utah State University to complain about a Physics professor there who question the Resolution). Read the article in its entirety here.
Drew Thompson, of the Stop HJR 12 group on Facebook, sent out this message yesterday to citizens:
House Joint Resolution 21, which would call for the withdrawal of Utah from the Western Climate Initiative, passed in the House today [Thursday, February 25] by a margin of 52 to 18. When it is assigned to a committee in the senate we will start to reach out to those committee members, and anyone interested in testifying at the senate committee hearing is encouraged to do so. To get live updates on HJR 21 visit http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HJR021.htm and sign up to track the resolution.
HJR 12 will likely be voted on in the coming days. The best thing for [citizens] to do now is to contact members of the senate with [their] concerns. Senators care most about the opinion of their constituents. Find out who your senator is and call, write to, or email them you feelings about HJR 12. To find out what district you are in and who you senator is visit http://www.utahsenate.org/map.html. For students I would suggest writing to the senator from your parents’ district as the senators representing the U probably won’t support the resolution to begin with.
A petition to warn our elected officials about climate change is in circulation, and if you haven’t had a chance to sign it yet please visit the following link to learn more.
http://climateletter.highroadforhumanrights.org/
(cross-posted to Utah Legislature Watch)
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 