Utah House Democrats

 

House OKs resolution doubting climate change

By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune

The House adopted a sternly worded resolution declaring the body's deep skepticism over current climate science and called for the federal government to halt carbon dioxide reduction programs.

Rep. Kerry Gibson said that by pursuing cap-and-trade policies, Washington is engaging on a path that could destroy Utah's way of life. "I'm afraid of what could happen to our economy, to our rural life, to our agriculture, if such a detrimental policy continues to be pursued for political reasons," said the Ogden Republican.

He said there is mounting evidence that humans can't influence their environment and the costs of enacting climate change policies could be staggering.

The House resolution is nonbinding and has no legal impact beyond expressing the sentiment of the Legislature. It passed the body by a 56-17 vote and now goes to the Senate.

The resolution was amended to tone down some of the incendiary language, specifically deleting references to a "climate data conspiracy" and a climate change "gravy train."

Rep. John Mathis, R-Vernal, said that as strongly as he feels about the resolution, "we should elevate our discussion above where a lot of people have taken it."

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, staged a defense of carbon dioxide, saying it is an odorless gas that is "essentially harmless to human beings" that is unrelated to air pollution and can actually encourage plant growth.

House Minority Leader David Litvack, D-Salt Lake City, said he is concerned the resolution goes too far and attacks science, and quoted a letter from several Brigham Young University scientists that argued against the resolution.

Gibson said he respects the BYU scientists. "I also respect the words of the scientists who are mounting on the other side of the issue, who in large part we have not heard," he said, because their viewpoints have been "hidden."

House formally questions global warming

By Bob Bernick Jr, Deseret News

With most Democrats voting no, the Utah House approved a resolution Tuesday that questions global warming while asking the federal government not to proceed with "cap-and-trade" legislation or CO2 regulation.

Sponsor Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, a dairy farmer, agreed to have his HJR12 amended to take out some inflammatory wording, like calling global warming and those who advocate it guilty of "tricks," and a "conspiracy" and "flawed" research.

Gibson said some argue that if the Environmental Protection Agency goes forward with cap and trade on CO2, it could lead to a "cow tax."

Then cows like his own could be measured for "belches" and other gases they produce, which in turn could lead to a head tax that would increase the cost of milk and meat to consumers.

"I believe in global warming," Gibson said. "I believe in global cooling, in (weather) cycles. We've had an ice age, extreme heat," but can humans, "in our everyday lives," change the environment around us?

Instead, through inaccurate data and a general type of hysteria, the public has been pushed to make improper judgments, he said. And adopting CO2 cap and trade would be a diabolical mistake. Such action is really "an energy tax" that will harm all Americans, harm jobs in this country and likely have little or no effect on global warming.

Reps. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, and Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake, said should the EPA actually follow the advice of HJR12, Utah could lose EPA grants for research on clean air and funds for refitting school buses to make them less polluting.

EPA money "has helped Utah schoolchildren," Johnson said.

But the idea that CO2 is somehow detrimental to humans, or to the earth, brought Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, out of his chair.

"CO2 does not give us red days" of air pollution warnings on the Wasatch Front, he said. "That is absolutely untrue."

"First do no harm," said Noel. And cap and trade will do great harm, he added.

Rep. David Litvak, D-Salt Lake, read from a letter by scientists "at that radical university — BYU," which said politicians should not be attacking scientists or science that they, for political reasons, disagree with.

That is a reference to Noel, who has criticized local scientists who have testified that global warming is a fact, that human activity contributes to it, and that actions should be quickly taken to fight it.

HJR12 passed 56-17 and now goes to the Senate for consideration. A resolution is a sentiment of the Legislature, has no force of law, and it's questionable whether congressmen or federal agency officials even read those sent to them.