Political dominance by Republicans and LDS lawmakers inspires no confidence.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Governor Spencer Cox and interagency fire leadership ask everyone in Utah this summer to change their behaviors when outside, as they launch “Fire Sense”, a public service campaign designed to educate the public and empower them to make fire sense decisions that will drive down the number of human-caused wildfires.
By Jake Jensen | Special to The Tribune
In September, I’m moving out of Utah.
Having lived in and around Salt Lake City my entire life, this move is not without its fair share of stress and anxiety. In recent weeks, I have found myself reflecting on the 22 years I have spent here. Though a brief time in comparison to some SLC residents, I feel I have undoubtedly experienced the unique cultural identity of Salt Lake City, as well as statewide.
Growing up, I worked to establish my own identity while an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a common experience for many Utah residents. In my teenage years, a love and appreciation for the outdoors grew in conjunction with an indifference for anything church related, and I rather unceremoniously ended my personal connection with the LDS church.
It wasn’t until I started studying environmental literature at the University of Utah that I saw the inextricable links between the LDS faith and the fate of Utah’s natural resources, air quality and wild spaces.
As of 2021, members of the LDS faith made up a striking 86% of the lawmakers in the Utah Legislature. According to the Pew Research Center, Latter-Day Saints are the most Republican-leaning religious group in the United States, with around seven in every 10 members identifying as Republican. Among these Republican-leaning Mormons is Gov. Spencer Cox.
This strong supermajority in our Legislature and the common religious affiliation among our representatives has real implications for how our state handles issues of natural resource management, land protections and other environmental topics. Amid another year of lackluster precipitation within a years-long drought, my confidence in the Republican-led, religiously driven Legislature’s abilities to handle these issues is dropping.
During this hot and dry summer, I am reminded of our elected governor delegating his governmental responsibility to God in hopes that some “divine intervention” will get us out of our current drought. While we’re all still waiting on the response from God, I am certain that some of our state legislators are working on new, absurd projects to divert our rivers every which way, all over the state. These are not the solutions we need.
Our current state government is hilariously — terrifyingly — inadequate at addressing the serious environmental problems of our time. Cox is currently supporting new oil and gas leases when now is the time to be implementing serious policy changes to address the environmental problems within our state.
With Utah residents being among the highest users of water per capita in the country, and with the air quality in Salt Lake City being some of the worst in the world, the need for these changes is urgent.
We don’t need any more religiously charged action to manage our water, clean our air or protect our land. What we need is swift and decisive action to measurably decrease our local emissions and water use.
A first step could be adjusting our water prices to the regional standards of other desert states instead of undercharging for an essential resource in a desert climate that’s experiencing a decade-long drought. Perhaps we could stop giving tax breaks to our local refineries and put stricter regulations on their emissions. Maybe those financial incentives can be reallocated to residents working on decreasing their water use through conservational landscaping alterations.
The environmental issues in our state need to be addressed with real action. I am not so sure that God is going to bail us out of our current predicament.
As I prepare to move out of my apartment in Salt Lake City, I am not confident that our current state government is up to the task of addressing these issues. I worry about the continued drought, the hazardous air quality, the drying Great Salt Lake and the people I love who will continue to deal with these problems for years to come. I can only hope that the great people of this state will continue to pressure lawmakers for definitive action.
Though my confidence in our lawmakers is low, I find hope in the exceptional environmental community in Utah who will certainly continue to advocate for change.
Jake Jensen is a recent graduate of the University of Utah, majoring in environmental and sustainability studies.
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