SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC 4 UTAH)- The nasty inversion continues to sit over the Wasatch Front. Tuesday is an Orange Mandatory Action Day. More than a dozen people rallied against poor air quality. Wednesday, a doctor’s group plans to file a lawsuit against yet another oil refinery’s plans for expansion. They did Tesoro last month and now they have their eye on Holly.
All about 14 protesters want for Christmas is clean air and they’re doing it with the holiday spirit in mind by dressing up as elves and Santas holding signs urging people to call their lawmakers about the state’s poor air quality.
“It gets people's attention, it's festive, people respond to an elf laughs,” said protester Utah Moms for Clean Air’s Stephanie Alexander.
But this inversion is no laughing matter. Poor air quality is under the microscope. The Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment wants to stop the spread.
“We're going to have worst air pollution along the Wasatch Front all year long and on a day like today when the air pollution is severe as it is, I don't know could tolerate this,” said Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment President Dr. Brian Moench.
So the group plans to file an appeal to the permit Holly Refinery just received from the state to expand its operations.
“We hope these permits will be seen by the courts as illegal and they will have to scale back their aspirations for increasing production and for increasing pollution,” said Dr. Moench.
The group also hopes to stop Tesoro by filling and injunction last month. Both companies argue they are well within the law to expand, they’ll bring more jobs to Utah, and they’ll be paying more in property taxes. None of those reasons Dr. Moench finds acceptable.
“When some of our state leaders say we're doing everything we can to clean up, obviously we're not. Other cities have done more,” said Moench.
We reached out to Holly Refinery and did not hear back from any representatives. Again, the doctors plan to file the appeal against the company’s permit Wednesday morning. They say they’re doing all of this through a grassroots approach, meaning no big corporations or companies are paying them. Reported by abc4 10 hours ago.
All about 14 protesters want for Christmas is clean air and they’re doing it with the holiday spirit in mind by dressing up as elves and Santas holding signs urging people to call their lawmakers about the state’s poor air quality.
“It gets people's attention, it's festive, people respond to an elf laughs,” said protester Utah Moms for Clean Air’s Stephanie Alexander.
But this inversion is no laughing matter. Poor air quality is under the microscope. The Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment wants to stop the spread.
“We're going to have worst air pollution along the Wasatch Front all year long and on a day like today when the air pollution is severe as it is, I don't know could tolerate this,” said Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment President Dr. Brian Moench.
So the group plans to file an appeal to the permit Holly Refinery just received from the state to expand its operations.
“We hope these permits will be seen by the courts as illegal and they will have to scale back their aspirations for increasing production and for increasing pollution,” said Dr. Moench.
The group also hopes to stop Tesoro by filling and injunction last month. Both companies argue they are well within the law to expand, they’ll bring more jobs to Utah, and they’ll be paying more in property taxes. None of those reasons Dr. Moench finds acceptable.
“When some of our state leaders say we're doing everything we can to clean up, obviously we're not. Other cities have done more,” said Moench.
We reached out to Holly Refinery and did not hear back from any representatives. Again, the doctors plan to file the appeal against the company’s permit Wednesday morning. They say they’re doing all of this through a grassroots approach, meaning no big corporations or companies are paying them. Reported by abc4 10 hours ago.