With 6 days left before Governor Herbert and AG Sean Reyes are required to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Utah or appeal and get a stay pending that appeal. We still no have word from the 10th Circuit with regards to Kitchen v Herbert, and the Republicans want to convene a council on state rights? Why?
They want to deny religious freedom by calling it religious freedom restoration, which will remove the separation of church and state to establish a state religion, forced down people's throats. They want to destroy people's families under the guise of traditional families. They want to take control of federal lands in order to mine it for fossil resources, using wasteful processes to lay waste to our natural resources, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, which will not be back to normal in Utah for another 600 years as it is!
Last night, I attended a Clean Energy Summit at the Salt Lake City library, that was meeting because Governor Herbert is convening his own energy summit today, and the only nod they give to their various panels when it comes to clean energy is how much it will cost. With representatives of the Moapa Band of Paiutes, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, and HEAL Utah, we were given glimpses into the proposed uses of tar sand and oil shale, very dirty, destructive processes that have a negative energy gain, and which requires the state to wrest control of public lands from the federal government. The American Lands Council is pushing on the governor and legislators heavily to make this happen.
The Republican legislature also wants to waste our money finding ways to circumvent protections for our home, our health, our environment, and our education. The Republicans' focused agenda on who deserves what is killing us and will leave us with a toxic wasteland.
They see the move to green, renewable energy as an expense, when in reality, it is only an expense to petroleum and coal companies, and an asset to everyone else, as well as a job creator.
The time to act is now. The time to register to vote is now. The time to speak up and be heard is now.
