Utah | Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

There is talk on The Hill of building a road in the western part of the Salt Lake Valley so that folks could bypass part of the I-15 corridor from I-80. This road would be a toll road.

I am against this, just as I am against the building of the Legacy Highway. We do not “need” more roads. When I drive at night, I cannot see the lines on our freeways – how sad! Where is the road maintenance money spent?

I think the idea of toll roads might be a good one – for existing roads. This would potentially decrease the amount of automobile drivers on our roads and drive up the demand for mass transportation. There are lots of possibilities.

Here is what we need:
– Better road maintenance of existing infrastructure
– Increased funding for increased mass transportation
– Long range goals for mass transportation, including high speed rail lines
– incentives for people who use mass transportation
– fee based parking lots at all rail stations

It puzzles me as to why our legislators continue to advocate funding for more roads. This only creates more development and more opportunities for more cars to be on the road. Our state is regressing in the area of environmental sustainability with regards to transportation.

No more roads!

Envirocare owns a low-level toxic waste dump in Utah’s west desert. They have been trying for awhile to be approved to accept higher levels of waste. The health of Utah’s environment continues to be at risk for declining in quality.

This came in from HEAL Utah:

In the Utah state senate today, Sen. Howard Stephenson (R-Draper) introduced a bill (S.B. 70) that would change state law to make it easier for Envirocare to double the size of its radioactive waste dump. Current law requires a company like Envirocare to get regulatory, legislative, and gubernatorial approval before expanding. S.B. 70 would rewrite the law to allow the legislature to override the Governor’s veto.

This bill is very dangerous. The decision to expand or develop nuclear and toxic waste dumps cannot be undone. Once nuclear and toxic waste is brought into Utah, the effects on our health, environment, and state will last for hundreds to thousands of years. Gov. Huntsman, looking after the interests of all Utahns, has already said “N-O” to Envirocare’s expansion. Envirocare is now using their tremendous influence in the legislature to rewrite the law so they can bypass the governor and entrench Utah as the nation’s nuclear waste dump.
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