Proposed Bill for “Water Authority” for Lake Powell Pipeline

We commented just a couple of days ago that the Utah Legislature is perennially a well spring of bad ideas, and this year is turning out to be no exception. One of the worst ever bills emerged that would create another unaccountable, shadow state agency, in the same mold as the Utah Inland Port Authority, that would be allowed to meet in secret and reach decisions without input from the public.

The purpose of this agency would be to force Utah tax payers to build the environmentally absurd Lake Powell Pipeline. It’s another example of governing in the dark, for and by, narrow, special interests, developers and water lobbyists. Utah legislators are planning a similar agency to use in trying to develop “fantasy islands” in Utah Lake.

This bill is another manifestation of the legislature’s relentless climate denial, capitulation to developers, and a commitment to a concept of irrational, non-sustainable, infinite growth. But perhaps even worse, it would institutionalize a new way to strangle democracy in the state of Utah.

This climate-denying legislation was already passed out of committee yesterday with overwhelming Republican support. Please go to:https://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jspto find your representative and senator, click on their name to get their contact info, call or e-mail, and tell them to enthusiastically vote against HB297.

Read coverage of the bill in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Utah legislative leaders on Thursday unveiled plans for a new $9 million state agency to advance Utah’s claims to the Colorado River in hopes of wrangling more of the river’s diminishing flows, potentially at the expense of six neighboring states that also tap the river.

Without any prior public involvement or notice, lawmakers assembled legislation to create a six-member entity called the Colorado River Authority of Utah, charged with implementing “a management plan to ensure that Utah can protect and develop the Colorado River system.”

https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2021/02/05/proposed-river-authority/