At first when I saw this post I had a small panic attack. I live in central Utah and heat with wood, but after I went to the link I realized a few things. First, the link is to KUER radio station. This is a station run by the UofU. It is a NPR (National Propaganda Radio) affiliate. This is nothing new other than they want a total burn ban instead of the current green, yellow, red burn day system. "Green" days you are free to burn, "yellow" they don't want you to, and "red" is a big no, no.
Let me clime onto my soap box here for a moment.
The Wasatch front, (Salt lake, Prove, Ogden and surrounding cities) have a major problem. It has had major problem in the winter (and now in the summers) for hundreds if not thousands of years. Long before Brigham Young got to Salt Lake in 1847. These cities sit in mountain valleys. The Indians would refer to the Salt lake valley as the dirty valley. They get major inversions in the winter and in the summer. Everything gets trapped in the valley during an inversion. Salt lake is ruffly 4400' in elevation depending where you are in the valley. Park City (ski resorts, 2002 winter Olympics) is ruffly at 7000'. Today they were about the same temperature with Park City's air being much better and healthier. Many times in the winter Park City will be 10 or 20 degrees warmer than Salt lake. I was born and raised in Salt lake Valley. 15 years ago I uprooted my family and moved 100 miles south for many reasons, but the main reason was so my oldest daughter could survive and make it to adulthood as healthy as she could. She had RSV when she was a 1 year old and would have major problems breathing in the winter time. I had major problems breathing in the winter time.
I still work out of Salt Lake. Most of the time I am there just long enough to jump in my commercial tractor-trailer and leave again. Today I spent 12 hours there and was gasping for air after about 6 hours of the stuff. It is a serious problem and it is only going to get worse. And, yes they take a shotgun approach to this problem every year about this same time.
There was an article in the last few days on the local news about how total electric cars pollute more than gasoline cars because most of the electricity is generated by coal, 80% if I remember right in Utah. This has caused a major stir by the clean air crowd because they have been pushing these "Clean Energy" cars as a viable alternative. The coal fired power plants are hundreds of miles away, out of sight, out of mind, not in my backyard mentality. It is fun to sit back and watch when the liberals attack each other.
They go after the diesel trucks in pure ignorance. All of the big trucks built since 2012 have to meet the stricter EPA standards and are a true clean energy vehicle. If it uses DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) the air coming out of the stack in Salt lake right now is cleaner than the air going in the intake manifold. Within a few years the vast majority of diesel trucks will be using DEF. Most of the newer trucks have " idle free" systems, APUs and will keep the drive comfortable, both winter and summer without running the engine. Most people do not know about these advancements and have a cow about the few remaining older trucks that still idle at night to keep warm.
It is already illegal to burn wood in Salt lake right now, it is a red burn day today for a good reason. It is not a government conspiracy, it is a major health problem. They could shut everything down, cars, the refineries, the airport, your scented candles, and Salt lake would still have some of the worst air in the US this time of year. As a Utah resident I am not suppose to tell anyone outside of Utah this dirty little secret, they want your tourist money and more tax revenue, but we already have enough California transplants so to that I say, it is terrible here, don't move here.
It this the longest post ever on AS?
