01-27-2016, 02:09 PM
Hi everyone, I just was curious about your perspectives and feelings about the EPA Regional Haze Proposal because it likely involves protecting what you love to do. I encourage you all(and me when I have time) to read both sides of the story to get an overall picture. But a basic summary of the situation is that by law, the best available retrofit technology(BART) must be installed to protect the scenic views at National Parks and Wilderness areas that result from pollution. Some coal industries such as Rocky Mountain Power don't have BART installed. They don't want to install it. You might be able to find it by simply googling EPA regional haze or something like that but there's a specific website where the public can comment until some time in March.
I have class shortly but will be back here later today and post the exact URL and a doctrine number which you need to write a public comment. Once you have all read both sides of the story comprehensively, I encourage everyone to comment. Even if what ends up happening isn't what you wanted, you might as well say you at least tried. I went to the meeting yesterday and was inexperienced with political meetings so I'm going to tell you all a little bit about me and my experience with it. If you want to skip reading that part then I totally get it as well!
This Summer I'll be graduated from the University of Utah with a Natural Resources Recreation Planning Management degree with a minor in Environmental Sustainability studies and was required to go to a political meeting to yesterday. So I'm pretty young and this was my first political meeting I've been to because I'm always busy going to school, doing homework, working, or fishing and doing other recreation activities
. It was an interesting experience to say the least.
I was under the impression from the email that I got that it was going to be short and that we would all be in the same room listening to anyone who wanted to speak. Well that wasn't the case at all. Here I show up 20 minutes early honestly thinking I'd be one of if not the only people there that early besides a couple EPA staff members and opposing side(Rocky Mountain Power and other Coal companies) spokesmen. Well that wasn't the case and obviously wasn't what the people in charge of the meeting were expecting either! The room they planned to have it in was totally full and only had enough chairs for less than half of the people that showed up. So I among hundreds of people didn't even get to go to the room and consequently weren't able to hear what people from both sides were saying.
So keep in mind that I went to this meeting by myself not knowing anyone and just for a class, wanting to hear both sides of the story. At the time I honestly didn't know or understand much about the proposal...I knew the topic was about Coal and air quality and that the EPA was proposing to do something. So here I am waiting with hundreds of other people outside the room waiting to get in and just listening to some lady telling everyone to remain respectful to one another regardless of what side you're for and that they didn't have close to enough of the EPA fact sheet or the Rocky Mountain Power fact sheet. I was apparently stuck standing by a group of coal workers and or just people that supported the coal industry and they just randomly started talking to me. It was super awkward to say the least.
So like I said at the beginning, I encourage you to all read both sides of the story and voice your opinion. As a future worker with one of our land management agencies, I think this proposal is great. I know you all fish and I'm assuming that you all don't fish just to catch fish. Your experience and desire to be outdoors in nature is probably far more complicated than simply wanting to catch fish.
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I have class shortly but will be back here later today and post the exact URL and a doctrine number which you need to write a public comment. Once you have all read both sides of the story comprehensively, I encourage everyone to comment. Even if what ends up happening isn't what you wanted, you might as well say you at least tried. I went to the meeting yesterday and was inexperienced with political meetings so I'm going to tell you all a little bit about me and my experience with it. If you want to skip reading that part then I totally get it as well!
This Summer I'll be graduated from the University of Utah with a Natural Resources Recreation Planning Management degree with a minor in Environmental Sustainability studies and was required to go to a political meeting to yesterday. So I'm pretty young and this was my first political meeting I've been to because I'm always busy going to school, doing homework, working, or fishing and doing other recreation activities
. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I was under the impression from the email that I got that it was going to be short and that we would all be in the same room listening to anyone who wanted to speak. Well that wasn't the case at all. Here I show up 20 minutes early honestly thinking I'd be one of if not the only people there that early besides a couple EPA staff members and opposing side(Rocky Mountain Power and other Coal companies) spokesmen. Well that wasn't the case and obviously wasn't what the people in charge of the meeting were expecting either! The room they planned to have it in was totally full and only had enough chairs for less than half of the people that showed up. So I among hundreds of people didn't even get to go to the room and consequently weren't able to hear what people from both sides were saying.
So keep in mind that I went to this meeting by myself not knowing anyone and just for a class, wanting to hear both sides of the story. At the time I honestly didn't know or understand much about the proposal...I knew the topic was about Coal and air quality and that the EPA was proposing to do something. So here I am waiting with hundreds of other people outside the room waiting to get in and just listening to some lady telling everyone to remain respectful to one another regardless of what side you're for and that they didn't have close to enough of the EPA fact sheet or the Rocky Mountain Power fact sheet. I was apparently stuck standing by a group of coal workers and or just people that supported the coal industry and they just randomly started talking to me. It was super awkward to say the least.
So like I said at the beginning, I encourage you to all read both sides of the story and voice your opinion. As a future worker with one of our land management agencies, I think this proposal is great. I know you all fish and I'm assuming that you all don't fish just to catch fish. Your experience and desire to be outdoors in nature is probably far more complicated than simply wanting to catch fish.
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