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Climate Action Along the Wasatch Front
A conversation on how to improve action on local climate change.
By Ray Howze
Jeff Bousson is a program manager for the local nonprofit Utah Clean Energy, which is helping to put on Utah Climate Week. Bousson (pictured above, center) spoke with City Weekly about where the Wasatch Front stands on climate action and topics the public should be thinking about when it comes to climate change.
CW: What does it mean to you to be a good steward of the environment?
JB: It's someone that provides empathy and compassion and is aware that our current systems are not completely isolated from the natural environment. Having an understanding that having a sustainable future requires us to think ahead and to evaluate what we're doing in our daily lives. And determine if that's going to be detrimental to future generations.
Do you think Utah has done enough in recent years to address climate change locally? If not, why?
To be frank, I don't think anybody has done enough on climate action. Of course, there's been some intriguing developments recently—something I think that certainly should be highlighted is the Community Renewable Energy Act. It was passed in the state of Utah and it's quite unprecedented because it gives constituents and communities served by Rocky Mountain Power a choice of how they want their electricity to be produced. That was passed this year. It authorizes a pathway for communities to achieve net-zero 100% renewable energy by 2030. The reason this happened is because there was a willing supplier—Rocky Mountain Power—as well as multiple communities, including Salt Lake City, Park City, Summit County, Moab and Cottonwood Heights wanting to explore alternative options of how they can pursue clean electricity and clean, renewable energy.
In short, no, we haven't done enough. However, the state of Utah is the only state in the entire nation with the exception of New York City that actually has an official Climate Week. Also, we have the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute that is working with a diverse set of stakeholders throughout the state to provide policy recommendations for the upcoming 2020 state Legislature and to produce climate-related policy recommendations. No, we haven’t done enough, and one of our biggest goals for Utah Climate Week, and also year-round, is to make climate action and climate change a nonpartisan issue. Unfortunately, it’s become a partisan issue.
What are some steps you think people or local governments can take today to help our local climate?
Steps local governments can take in order to reduce their carbon footprint would include adopting a resolution no later than Dec. 31, 2019, stating the clear goal of achieving net-100% renewable energy by 2030. Other steps local governments can review, look at it from a greenhouse-gas footprint perspective. The biggest contributions of our greenhouse gas footprint comes down to buildings and transportation, as well as agriculture. Looking at those different sectors, depending on their resources, they can look for the low-hanging fruit, which is absolutely energy efficiency. It certainly is not as sexy as renewable energy, but energy efficiency is some of the most no-cost or low-cost solutions that save people money ... when you look at air quality, I believe it's up to 50% of our poor air quality emissions come from transportation. Begin to visualize how we want our communities to look like in the future so we can infuse equity within this approach. How do we work together instead of working in silos and address the growing population?
Do you ever see a time where the Wasatch Front might be inversion free?
I envision there to be pathways moving forward for communities to address our serious air-quality situation. Topics like the inland port, an expanding population, don't do us any favors. Not to mention, there are some things out of our hands as far as the interstate system that we have. But we're seeing more and more communities, for example, Park City is playing a big leadership role in bringing together mountain towns throughout the entire Intermountain West to talk about how they can combine resources and share experience and knowledge in order to move the needle in reducing poor air quality. In short, I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done and in order for that to happen, we're going to have to prioritize community over economic development. We are not anti-economic growth, but we should not look at economic growth as the only metric to have a safe, healthy and sustainable community.
We know about some of the worldwide misconceptions about climate change, but what are some local ones you’ve heard from people?
I don’t have conversations about whether climate change is real. I don’t get those questions so I don’t have a lot of examples to share. The questions I get now are, ‘What can I do about this?’ ‘What are the biggest challenges?’ ‘What can our communities do to address this issue?’ An easy one that comes to folks’ mind, for example, yesterday, some snow fell along the Wasatch Front. So there you go, there’s snow. Look at 2018’s winter in comparison to 2019’s winter. They’re completely different. We had a lot of precipitation, which certainly helps. But climate is different than weather. What you see on a daily basis or just one winter, if we have another winter with a lot of precipitation, that doesn’t mean the Great Salt Lake or snow level pack is where it needs to be. The common misconception of climate vs. weather is one of the biggest ones. … I think it’s important and imperative to say, ‘Yeah, last year’s winter was fantastic and if we get another one, that’s greatly needed,’ but that’s not indicative of where we’re heading in terms of the climate crisis we face and how it’s going to impact our water supplies.
What do you hope people get out of Utah Climate Week?
I'm hoping that conversations around our climate crisis are elevated. There are statistics out there that prove it's a topic all of us recognize and is a legitimate crisis and we need to do something about it. However, these aren't conversations we're having around the dinner table or with friends. It's a complicated issue. The reason we haven't been able to move the needle as much as we should is because it's a cultural challenge. There needs to be cultural will, not just political will, to address our climate crisis. We want to have new partners and new faces and more members of the general public engaging on this issue. The whole purpose is to celebrate some of the successes we've been able to advance on a community and state level, but also look for opportunities to work together to move the needle on climate action. We want to put on the forefront of people's minds that we as a community need to come together on this issue.
Upcoming Utah Climate Week Events:
Mayor's Townhall: Stewardship of the Air and Climate
Thursday, Oct. 3, 6:30-8 p.m.
Albion Middle School, 2755 Newcastle Drive, Sandy
The Citizen's Climate Lobby hosts a panel with Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini, Cottonwood Heights Mayor Michael Peterson, Sandy Mayor Kurt Bradburn, University of Utah atmospheric scientist Logan Mitchell, BYU professor of law Brigham Daniels and Climate Advocate and University of Utah student Piper Christian.
Community Climate Connections: 2019 Climate and Health Symposium
Friday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 5, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Clark Planetarium, 110 S. 400 West
Several community leaders, researchers and practitioners will share impacts, solutions and information related to climate change and public health during Salt Lake County and Clark Planetarium's fourth annual climate symposium. Attendees are encouraged to register on Eventbrite for Saturday's evening panel to be held at the planetarium's IMAX theater.
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