Reader comments
Air standards violated

It's very difficult to believe the measurements cited in this story. Box Elder County is mostly empty. At the very least, add more sensors in the outlying reaches and take a full sampling of the entire county... not just the 10 acres around Nucor and the industrial park in Tremonton.

Here comes the people driving their car accusations again. The truth be known its the local busineses driving air poluting vehicles that do not go through any state emission inspections. The state law exempts all vehicles of 1 ton and higher from emission inspections. The only emission requirement for business vehicles is an emissitivity test, it can't be visible. Which means as long as it can't be seen by the naked eye it is not a polluter, but we all know this is the wrong answer. And if anyone ever notices that during the daytime use of the roads and freeways there are more emissions exempt trucks than cars on the road. The automobile industry has cleaned up the family cars but nothing has been done about the businesses causing the major part of air polution in Utah. Utah should tax these vehicles on a mileage basis as well as a value basis. Businesses should not be allowed to ignore their major part of the problem in air polution. On a non tax deductible mileage tax they would drive less often and combine deliveries and reduce the number of vehicles they put on the roads. Fewer deliveries equals less pollution.

We should deport them for being illegal!

Let the free market solve this problem -- how about a tax cut?

Wow, they violated the air standards. First thing to do is find every Federal Employee and shut off their power, lock away their car keys and help stop the pollution. Leadership starts from the Top so hit these leeches first.

Ever followed a school bus? The smoke and fumes GAG you....lucky them, they don't have to follow standards......

It's good to see a practical and informative reporting on this subject. Normally, a story will show only the negative and not how air quality is getting better. We all care about the environment and need to settle down, collect our thoughts, and come up with reasonable and achievable solutions. There's no need to point fingers and scream. Instead, we need to first, all pitch in, and second, add more focus to the problem areas.

We have geographical challenges to air pollution that other states don't have. I appreaciate the go-getter attitude of our leadership in attacking the problem. It would be much easier for them to get negative and complain that EPA keeps raising the standard to much harder to achieve levels. You don't get any of that from them, only positive.

Meanwhile I think I'll just step outside and take a deep breath and enjoy the sweet-smelling brownish-orange air that fills my lungs.

Who cares about air quality anyway? Money in our pockets is the most important thing. I think everyone can agree to that. I am with the other comments...except let's go further. I think we should place all of the air monitoring sensors on mountain tops in the most remote portion of each county. Then we can all agree that our air quality is great. Yeah we will lose more children and elderly folks because of our deceptive air quality results, but we can justify that with the extra money that we save. You gotta go somehow, right? The key is to not be responsible for our actions. I think we all know that the more responsible we are for our actions the less satisfaction we get out of life. Who could argue with that? I think President Bush would back me up on that point. Bottom line, if we love our country, we must take corrective action now to diminish the air quality in Utah. Once we succeed, if we have enough oxygen content in our air left we should move onto destroying other natural resources. It's the right thing to do.

Since ozone pollution is caused primarily by automobiles/trucks, and since older models emit more pollutants than newer ones, simply removing the sales tax on new vehicles would help cut pollution by making it more affordable to buy a new car.

More new cars equals less pollution.

The new ozone standard is only a little lower than the current standard; I don't think this will be as hard for us to meet as the new standards for particulate matter will be.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Sadly it seems as though money takes a far greater precedence over environmental quality because money is readily available to spend right now. Unfortunately, people don't seem to care about the state of the environment because it's not a "fix right now" and move on kind of thing. The benefits are a little more abstract, and very few will seem to care until it's too late. We need to move away from an instant gratification way of life and look at the long term benefits or drawbacks. It reminds me of diets and exercising. People can't stick with it because it's a LIFESTYLE, and the benefits will be reaped subtly over time. This same principle may be applied to improving the quality of our environment.

No sales tax on new vehicles?
Sorry, but some older vehicles get great gas mileage and don't pollute all that much.
People with older vehicles are already taxed more on a yearly basis.
I know gas is real expensive right now, but if you're going to adjust taxes, how about increasing gas tax? You don't pollute a lot, you don't pay a lot of extra tax. You drive an SUV 60 miles every day, pollute a ton, and you pay a lot of extra tax.

The Utah Legislature deserves credit for being serious about this issue. They appropriated money this session for better monitoring and implementation and also appropriated money to help retrofit school buses.

The media and Democrats love to complain about the Legislature but this illustrates how serious and competent they are.

Thank you.

Absolutely, a tax cut is what we need to pay for cleaning up the air and meeting the new standards. Especially a tax cut for the wealthy. That way they could buy, oh say a couple of new suvs, maybe a new pickup, 2 new 4 wheelers, possibly even a new boat. Then they could sell their old suvs, pickup, 4 wheelers, and boat to us poor little people and we could go out into the wilderness and foul the air a little more. That would necessitate a new tax cut for the wealthy, who could buy new cars, etc, and on, and on, and on. Yeah, a tax cut solves everthing.

I agree that the tax on gas should be increased. It only hurts the wallet until you switch to cheaper alternatives (Trax, bus, carpool, bike, walking).

How about a significant tax credit for purchasing a car (new or used) that gets good gas mileage? Every time I drive I am shocked to see individuals (as opposed to more than one person) driving around in SUVs. Talk about dumb.

I live in an area where many parents drop their kids off at school and then pick them up later. Parents should not idle their cars in the drop-off and pick-up zone. I wish there were signs.

UTA needs to have an incentive to switch to better cleaner buses as do school districts. The air is so important.

We think we live in a beautiful state. We are proud of the natural amenities here. Clean air should be one of them.

Ozone pollution causes respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion.

Yes, socialism, in the name of environmentalism.

I'd buy a new honda civic except for the fact that I don't want to give another 1400.00 to the state in sales tax (I've already bought one new car this year)

How about raising the standards so that we can pollute more?

we should stop taxing people all together.