Utah Senator Mike Lee wants to remove access to the legal system from residents
Utah Senator Mike Lee is at it again. Earlier this year he attempted to sell off our public lands to private interests. Now, he’s sponsoring a bill which would prevent residents and nonprofit groups, like UPHE, from holding industrial polluters and million dollar businesses accountable for illegal polluting practices.
Utah Senator Mike Lee is at it again. Earlier this year he attempted to sell off our public lands to private interests. Now, he’s sponsoring a bill that would eliminate one of the most important provisions in the Clean Air Act that allows citizen groups like UPHE to take polluters to court for illegal pollution, or engaging in business practices that allow others to do so.
If passed, citizen groups like UPHE would no longer be able to hold polluters accountable, only the federal and state governments would be able to bring suit over Clean Air Act violations. UPHE only engages in legal action when our government fails to do its job, and lately that is all too often.
Dr Moench told a national news outlet, “All polluters, big and small, couldn’t ask for a better friend than Mike Lee. From the minute he walked into the Senate chambers he has been one of the most enthusiastic purveyors of regressive anti-science, anti-environment, anti-public health protection ideology on Capitol Hill. There’s a good reason the Clean Air Act was passed a long time ago under a Republican Administration. There’s a good reason why a very right wing Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Clean Air Act can be used to address the climate crisis, because greenhouse gases endanger us all. But apparently Sen. Lee thinks Utah voters desperately want to breathe more air pollution, spend more time in the hospital and die sooner, and can’t wait to live on a hotter, drier, more dangerous planet. This bill would certainly help achieve all of that.”
Because of a state and now federal government that has proven all too often to be hostile or indifferent to protecting our environment and your family health’s, UPHE has been forced to turn to the courts to achieve better public policy for Utah residents.
We urge you to call and write Senator Lee’s office and tell him how this bill could hurt Utahns.
801-524-5933
The state legislature in Utah has a long history of letting polluters off the hook, and prioritizing big business over residents health. We certainly don’t trust that they would ensure the Clean Air Act is being followed.
Recently, the legal system has been one of the most effective tools we have to protect residents and shape public policy as the federal government and state government have been particularly hostile to the environmental and public health movements.
This is a blatant attempt to remove the legal process as a form of protection from residents. What use is the law if residents aren’t able to access it?