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Utah
State Sen. Scott Wiener authored legislation dubbed the Gas Tax Alternative Pilot to extend the California Road Charge Program that completed its pilot in 2017. The program takes on more significance with the 2035 sales ban of gas-powered vehicles.
Office of California State Senator Scott Wiener
Oakley, a small town in Summit County, Utah, has paused new development while it redraws its land use map and brings new water supply online.
Park Record
The latest Bureau of Reclamation report on water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead trigger new drought contingencies in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
Upper Colorado River Commission
Washington Gov. Jay Insee distinguished himself in the 2020 presidential Democratic primary as the "climate candidate," yet he vetoed a section of a transportation electrification bill that set a goal of ending sales of gas-powered cars by 2030.
Electrek
The megadrought continues, with contingency plans differing by location.
CNN
Shortly after Transportation secretary-nominee Pete Buttigieg told a Senate committee that all options were on the table to pay for federal transportation investment, a spokesperson ruled out a gas tax hike.
Roll Call
Signs of worsening drought conditions in the American West are triggering early actions for states that depend on water from the Colorado River.
KUNC
A railway project designed to move oil and gas across eastern Utah has received millions in grant money from a fund designed to mitigate the impacts of fossil fuels.
High Country News
The density debate can't be avoided in fast-growing Utah, according to the researchers and political leaders who support the findings of a new report from the University of Utah's Kem C. Garner Policy Institute.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Nuclear regulators have recently given the green light to a new kind of nuclear reactor, the small modular reactor. A recent article in The Urbanist explains the case for a nuclear-powered urbanism.
The Urbanist
Utah finds itself in a unique situation, with money to spend on expanding transit capacity at a time when many transit agencies are plotting layoffs and service reductions.
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Utah Transit Authority is proposing a new approach to transit service design for the counties on the Wasatch Front, focusing changes on a "core route network" of frequent service.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Trump's former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, warned CBS viewers recently that the U.S. was at a "dangerous tipping point" in the pandemic. "We are on the cusp of exponential growth," he added later.
CBS News
The seven states of the Colorado River Compact usually stay out of each other's business once the water is divvied up, but in a surprising move, six of the compact states have signed a letter to raise concerns about Utah's pipeline plans.
KJZZ
Wastewater testing is being hailed as a success at the University of Arizona, credited for stopping a COVID outbreak. In Utah, wastewater analysis forced almost 300 students to quarantine for four days while awaiting their test results.
The Arizona Republic
The state of Utah created Envision Utah in the late 1990s to address growth while maintaining quality of life and protecting the environment in the state. The plan set goals for 2020, so it's time to evaluate its success.
The Salt Lake Tribune
The states drawing water from the Colorado River's lower basin—California, Arizona, and Nevada—used less water from the river in 2019 than any year since the mid-1980s.
Circle of Blue
These two Western states did something that none of the 20 other states in the nation going the wrong way in the pandemic have yet to do: they paused their reopening plans due to rising coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.
Politico
Paiute Indians in Arizona oppose a plan to pipe Colorado River water from Lake Powell in Arizona to St. George in Utah, according to documents released by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Salt Lake Tribune
On May 24, the Navajo Nation had 4,658 reported cases and 165 deaths in a population of 173,000—more even than New York City—while local organizers scrambled to find the water to cover the need during the pandemic.
Outside
