Anastasia:

I appreciate your invitation to answer some questions (see below). You represent the Salt Lake Tribune, and as I have a very serious distrust for the Tribune already, I will watch how you handle this first experience. If you handle it well (honestly), we may have future dialog. If you don’t handle it well, the assumption is clear and it will be the last correspondence I have with the Tribune.

Good Luck,
Troy Shelley

My name is Anastasia Hufham and I'm a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. We are asking candidates to answer questions for our legislative voter guides this year. Please respond...

SLT Question: Utah’s largest electricity provider has canceled plans to replace its coal-fired power plants with nuclear power and has walked back comments about investing in clean energy. (Your position?)

My Answer: It was never going to be nuclear, it was planned to convert to hydrogen, a technology that is not yet invented, so the idea was to first convert from coal to natural gas, then when the technology is available for hydrogen, they would further convert to that. Coal is clean energy. If you were around in the 70’s, you would be able to realize the difference in what goes up the chimney. The power plants have used amazing technology to capture the particulate matter, and in many cases re-use it as a commodity. Human ingenuity is amazing when faced with challenges, and because of affordable, reliable and available electricity, we have the available resources to invent. Because of those inventions, the world is a much, much cleaner place than it was even in the 70’s.

SLT Question: Should Utah, while it actively supports housing and business development, also be looking for more sustainable and less fossil fuel and carbon-dependent energy sources?

My Answer: In the mid 1800’s it was discovered that electricity could be harnessed from the sun. About 8 years after that discovery, the gas engine was invented. In that period of time, the government didn’t stick a bunch of regulations on particular businesses, and the market drove demand. What rose to the top? What failed to gain any ground? Currently a hydrocarbon powered world is the pathway to success. If we continue down the political path, we will fail as a country, but sentence third world countries to the life they currently live in with no hope for a better future. Yes, our regulations in the United States have an effect of the rest of the world.  

SLT Question: Is climate change negatively impacting Utah?

My Answer: This is a somewhat insincere question as in January, the climate does not allow crops to grow, but it does allow the ski industry to thrive. The ski industry is a complete failure if we only live in a season when crops can grow and it never snows. To answer your sincere question, it negatively impacts winter related industries in the summer, and negatively impacts summer industries in the winter.  

SLT Question: Water scarcity continues to be a challenge for the state. Recent legislation has attempted to conserve water and get more to the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River. Should Utah do more to subsidize homeowners to conserve water?

My Answer: We live in a desert. It was only a short time ago that the requirement to build a home is that you had to have X-amount of grass, and the park strips all had to have grass. Maybe if the elected officials would make fewer decisions on behalf of individuals, individuals could look at the situation and say, “Hey, grass makes no sense to me. I will zero-scape instead." I think water rates should represent the cost of delivering the water and some pricing to either dissuade or penalize high water consumption. I generally am opposed to such an approach as the water was actually never owned by the very entity that is taxing for its use. I am not sure how that happens, but we all need water.

SLT Question: Should laws require large users to pay more for water? What other steps should state government take to deal with water scarcity?

My Answer: You assume this is a State Government issue. There are elected officials in every community in the state. Decisions need to be pushed back to the local elected officials for decisions. A one size fits all approach still does not work.

SLT Question: Do you support building the Lake Powell Pipeline?

My Answer: There are a few entities involved in this transaction. The owners of the water, the cities that need the water, the land owners that the pipeline will need to cross and those who rely on the water for power generation. The state really is not one of those interested parties. I don’t see the state as owning the water, “it’s all allocated to particular ownership.” This is an issue that the involved parties need to resolve. As history clearly shows, when the government gets involved, it generally results in a train wreck and no one left to be accountable because they have since been unelected and the process moves on. The decision on this pipeline is limited to the parties involved.  

SLT Question: Triggered after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Utah’s current law bans nearly all abortions — except in instances of sexual crimes, when there is a fatal fetal abnormality or when the mother’s life is at risk or rape.For now, that law is currently on hold in the courts and an 18-week ban is active in Utah”Unimportant comment may ooze of bias.  (Your position?)

My Answer: Here is the simple answer. Choice is made when a biological male and a biological female have sex. The result of that choice is, at times, a living child in the womb of the mother. I cannot support a law that restricts a consequence of a previous choice. If a mother has the heart to terminate the life of the powerless child, we as a society have completely collapsed. The constitution is null and society will fail. Let’s leave room for those who are raped or incest so we don’t shame them in a very innocent but incredibly hard decision.

SLT Question: Should Utah’s trigger law have more or fewer restrictions? Education funding:

My Response: Lets fix the mess. When a teacher should be fired for poor performance, they instead get moved into administration—the waste of tax dollars is obvious. The state spends over 60% of its budget on education Over $8 billion last year. Lands that were originally set aside to fund our education are being traded away or sold. The levels of administration involved between when the dollars are allocated and when they finally get to the teachers is reprehensible.

SLT Question: Are you voting for or against the constitutional amendment that removes the requirement that income taxes be used for education and social services?

My Answer: As a general rule, I am opposed to anything that requires an amendment to the constitution either on a state or federal level as there are many unintended consequences that it creates.