Utah has Done Little in the Fight Against Greenhouse Emissions

 However many years we're into this -- this attempt to switch to alternative energy -- we don't have much to show for it.  Who would say what year it was that we began -- that we should know if it has been 50 years or however many. Still look at where we are at: Fossil fuels still account for 62 percent of our energy creation.

   Sixty-two percent. After all these years. Nuclear energy is but at 20 percent. Wind at a meager 7 percent, and solar at an even meagerer 2 percent. Yes, solar, for all we hear about it, accounts for only 2 percent of our energy production.

  Utah? We are even worse. Much worse. Sixty-six percent is from coal, and, though I don't know the percentage, natural gas accounts for yet more fossil fuel usage.

  It is said power plants fired by fossil fuels account for 38 percent of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions. That figure might be a little old, but I would wonder if we have progressed much from it. Utah, of all states, should be a leader in being a responsible global citizen. If we can cut 38 percent of the greenhouse gases from out of the skies over Utah, why would we not do it?

   And, what are we waiting for? Decades have passed since the urgency of fighting carbon monoxide emerged. Decades. We, as a state, don't have much to show in the way of progress.