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News & Current Events Apr 10, 2026 at 11:50 PM

‘A surrender to special interests’: alarm as Utah shields fossil-fuel companies

Posted by National-Law-458


‘A surrender to special interests’: alarm as Utah shields fossil-fuel companies
the Guardian
‘A surrender to special interests’: alarm as Utah shields fossil-fuel companies
New legislation comes amid push from big oil, as critics warn polluters’ profits prioritized over Americans’ health

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flint_tower 2 days ago +562
It’s wild watching states double down on fossil fuels while insurance companies literally price climate risk into everything. Easiest quiet protest: move your money and retirement funds out of fossil-heavy portfolios if you can.
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talligan 2 days ago +64
You'd think that people would want to move away from the boom bust cycle of a hydrocarbon economy to energy that has a much more stable price, but that's apparently woke 
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MeesterBooth 2 days ago +62
You should see what the Utah legislature said about Pacificorp (a power company) selling off their assets in Washington state.
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FontMeHard 2 days ago +26
well, what’d they say?
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Fall_Harvest 1 day ago +13
[https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/02/18/utah-applauds-pacificorps-energy/](https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/02/18/utah-applauds-pacificorps-energy/)
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FormerTesseractPilot 1 day ago +11
You should see!
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Fallouttgrrl 2 days ago +7
I dunno Somehow I think - if I could afford a retirement fund - that it's likely to be doing fine in fossil fuels right up until the world ends :/
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louslapsbass21 1 day ago +1
Ok but insurance companies will take any possible excuse to charge more, so saying they've priced it in doesn't make it real. And retail money does not compare to the amount of investment in fossil fuels so the quiet protest does nothing significant sadly
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joepez 2 days ago +66
No industry should be shielded from negligence or willful harmful actions. 
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DicemonkeyDrunk 2 days ago +28
Let me introduce you to Police Unions and qualified immunity….the more you know the worse it gets.
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joepez 1 day ago +2
Police officers have qualified immunity not the unions but I get your point. That said police officers are not an industry. Gun manufacturers, AI or any other business should not have government sponsored protections. That’s an uncapped subsidy paid for by the public. If an industry has, or is seeking it, that means they know they have liabilities they can’t defend. And at the end of the day you get that subsidy so you can turn on a continuous political donation spigot not to protect a nascent industry. 
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DicemonkeyDrunk 1 day ago +2
Police officers have qualified immunity because of unions and government protection.
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National-Law-458 2 days ago +233
Utah is turning into a cesspool.
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junkyard_robot 2 days ago +287
Turning into? I'll give you the great salt lake is turning into a cesspool. But, Utah has been a cesspool of mormon weird american jesus religious control since the beginning.
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DoomguyFemboi 2 days ago +30
A cesspool would be several steps up. What that lake is turning into is something so deadly it's really hard to comprehend. When it dries up a huge part of the state will become uninhabitable.
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BooobiesANDbho 2 days ago +26
As a Utahn. I can confirm
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twarthbn 1 day ago +12
It’s always been surprising to me that right-wing mainline Christianity allows the mormon church to exist. The fact that the church’s investment portfolio controls over 100 billion USD probably doesn’t hurt
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GetsBetterAfterAFew 2 days ago +151
Utah is a state because mormons murdered innocent people and basically declared war on the US Military 1857-1858 and eventually signed a pact to stop warring in lieu of being given Utah after they found incredible amounts of gold. They killed 1000s of innocent people moving to the west coast. Monsters.
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Pale-Acanthaceae-736 2 days ago +53
There's a Netflix miniseries called American Primaeval that is all about this. A woman from the east trying to escape from the law and get to Cally with her young son after she killed her abusive husband. Their path west led them directly into the 3-way conflict among the Utes, the Mormon militias, and the US Govt. Brutal scenes.
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two4six0won 2 days ago +29
I keep meaning to watch that. I vaguely remember the Mormons being upset by it, so it's probably more accurate than usual lol.
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Prin_StropInAh 2 days ago +10
It is a fantastic history series. I DO NOT see it as historical fiction
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Ravenkell 2 days ago +7
Not speaking of this show in particular, I haven't seen it l, but a representation does not have to be realistic to be an accurate portrayal. And most outside looks into mormonism have not made me sympathetic to their party
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Pale-Acanthaceae-736 19 hr ago +1
The woman and her son trying to get to California is just to add flavor.
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Pale-Acanthaceae-736 2 days ago +4
Well worth a watch.
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Statertater 2 days ago +8
Dude that was such a great series*. Thanks for commenting this, i never did catch why she was running
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Pale-Acanthaceae-736 2 days ago +3
It's not really revealed until the last few episodes.
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memrph 2 days ago +37
A monstrous religious group? No that can’t be! /s
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NeighborhoodFew7779 2 days ago +26
I dunno... I thoroughly enjoy watching the MAGA Mormons cozy up with the people (MAGA Evangelicals) who hate them the absolute most... all because they think they finally have a seat at the *cool kids'* table. MAGA will happily poop knife the Mormons like a stuck turd... **after** they achieve their ultimate goal of a white, Jesus-jerking ethnostate. There is literally no single group that hates Mormons more than white Evangelicals. Not even the ex-mormons that Mormon leaders have propped up as their favorite strawman. It's not even close. If these folks get what they're all hoping for, it's going to be the mother of all "leopards eating faces" bombs. The corrupted DOJ will come after that sweet, sweet $250B that the Mormons have amassed, and they'll easily do it with the justification of "cult"... once the levers of power have been secured.
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OePea 2 days ago +10
That is the most uplifting projection for the future I have read in quite some time, I thank you
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NeighborhoodFew7779 2 days ago +5
We'll be an absolute shit show by that point... probably subsisting on dumpster rat protein, and whatever welfare crypto we can eek out of the system for "digital loyalty credits"... ...but if I get to watch Mormon temples turned into ICE strip joints, it will be some small reward.
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O_PLUTO_O 2 days ago +13
https://youtu.be/KTBkESi060k This movie came out in 1997. It’s been a cesspool for a long long time. Started around the time Mormons moved in.
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AT-PT 2 days ago +2
I wish Utah was abbreviated "Uh"
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UselessInsight 2 days ago +6
Kind of what you get when you let a church become the de facto government.
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AnewTest 2 days ago +3
It's been a cesspool since the moment the US gave the Mormons the land.
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[deleted] 2 days ago -14
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National-Law-458 2 days ago +9
I didn’t even mention “other people”. Between their air, water, and soil contaminations it’s literally turning into a cesspool.
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turb0_encapsulator 2 days ago +61
Republican politics is hilarious because they'll defend moneyed interests that don't even have a major presence in the state.
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redyellowblue5031 2 days ago +10
Oh I’m so glad we’re moving the forest service [to Utah](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ywdy4lvjxo).
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Direlion 2 days ago +21
Why wouldn’t they? This is entirely on brand for Utah.
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furrysalesman69 2 days ago +45
Did they not *just* have that train accident with those petrochemicals making a whole portion of Utah uninhabitable?!
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murrtrip 2 days ago +38
3 years ago in Ogden. Didn’t make anything uninhabitable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkhvYHFoml0
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furrysalesman69 2 days ago +18
Flip, how time passes. Still, though, they were already scaling back environmental regulations. 2023 is still relatively close. I must have been thinking of ohio.
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capt_fantastic 2 days ago +5
tim dechristopher got 21 months (several in solitary) just for bidding in an illegal land auction. utah's always been this way.
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Interesting-Prize-79 2 days ago +8
Every Politician Who Voted For This Should Be In Jail
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Cockyidiot1977 2 days ago +4
What did you expect, Money corrupts everything
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jabaturd 2 days ago +7
You newbs can thank your SCOTUS for making bribes legal. Reap the whirlwind. The US is definitely more corrupt than China and a toss up with Russia.
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AdventurousGlass7432 2 days ago +2
[ Removed by Listnook ]
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Western-Corner-431 1 day ago +2
This is why Utah can’t help its own working class people
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Gnostinaut 1 day ago +2
This is why I left. Utah is run by a cult that literally worships pollution.
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antisocialdecay 2 days ago +4
Republicans bowing to the money donors. Color me shocked.
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swegamer137 1 day ago -5
"[Utah](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/utah) has made it nearly impossible for residents to hold [fossil fuel](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/fossil-fuels) companies legally accountable for climate damages" Great! The idea they should be accountable for.... releasing CO2, something literally every human does every day, is absurd.
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