2024’s Most Widely-Read Columns

2024’s Most Widely-Read Columns

– By Howard Sierer –

Here’s a quick summary of some of my most widely read columns in 2024.

Utah Near the Bottom

After documenting in multiple columns (here, here, here and here) how Utah leads the country in a variety of meaningful ways, I found a ranking where we’re third from the bottom. But in this case, that’s a good thing: we  have the third lowest electricity rates in the country.

The Energy Affordability Report compares how states like Utah use free market principles and innovation to limit manmade greenhouse gas emissions while other states choose heavy-handed approaches, implementing statewide mandates, pricing schemes and subsidies that favor state-chosen technologies and industries.

Utah Gov. Cox’s DEI Awakening

Swept along by progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) concepts that were all the rage when he took office in 2021, Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox embraced those ideas wholeheartedly. After all, don’t we all want to accept all members of our diverse society, be equitable in our actions, and make everyone feel included?

Seeing the unfolding damage, Cox reversed course.

He expressed his concerns in a December 2021 press conference and repeated them in his televised December 2023 PBS press conference, saying, “I think it’s bordering on evil that we’re forcing people into a political framework before they can even apply for a job in the state.” He called DEI statements “very political,” and indicated his support for the legislature’s plans to permanently ban DEI hiring statements.

Teens, Marijuana and Psychosis

Utah legalized medical marijuana in 2018, sending a message to the state’s teens and young adults that marijuana is good medicine. It’s not.

Addiction psychiatrist Dr. Deepali Gershan says, “This isn’t the cannabis of 20, 30 years ago.” Up to 20% of Dr. Gershon’s caseload is comprised of patients for whom she suspects cannabis use triggered a psychotic episode.

A 2017 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed that even one psychotic episode following cannabis use was associated with a 47% chance of a person developing schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The risk was highest for people 16 to 25 years old, higher than for substances including amphetamines, hallucinogens, opioids, and alcohol.

Melting Pot or Salad Bowl?

The United States has long been known as a “melting pot” as immigrants from countries around the world have arrived on our shores. The “melting” occurred spontaneously as these newcomers adopted the language and culture of those around them.

Sadly, the progressive left increasingly rejects the concept of a melting pot. Instead, leftist media and academia extoll the virtues of a “salad bowl” where people mix but remain culturally distinct.

“Separate is not equal” said the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark 1953 Brown v Board of Education decision. I agree and given the racial and ethnic strife in salad bowl societies around the world, I’ll take a melting pot any day.

Another Congressional Seat for Utah?

In case you somehow missed the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey (ACS), its mind-numbing data tables actually portend a significant change coming for Utah. After adding its fourth Congressional seat in 2010, Utah is likely to get a fifth seat following the 2030 census.

That forecast is based on our state’s population growth rate through the first three years of this decade. That growth rate did slow in 2023 to 1.64% annually, still 4^th fastest in the country, but even projecting forward with this lower growth rate, we’ll likely get a fifth seat.

Biden’s Plan to Kill Gas-Powered Vehicles

It’s not just your paranoia. They really are coming for your gas-powered vehicles or at least, the one you expect to buy to replace your current vehicle.

The EPA’s new rule has the effect of requiring that electric vehicles (EVs) account for 67 percent of all new passenger car and light-duty truck sales by 2032. It’s all part of the environmental left’s belief that reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in this case carbon dioxide, will limit or halt global warming.

Since the rule would have a direct impact on almost all consumers, forcing most us to buy EVs, it’s likely to run into a skeptical public already buying far fewer EVs than were forecasted by the government and the automobile industry. That skepticism alone could force a dramatic retreat in these new emission standards by the federal government.

Utah Keeps Coming Out on Top

Utah came out #1 again in U.S. News’ annual ranking of the best states for 2024, repeating its #1 ranking from 2023. As was the case last year, Utah’s consistency in categories across the board helped make it the king. The state landed in the top 10 in five of the eight categories measured by U.S. News, peaking at second in education, followed by #3 finishes in both economy and infrastructure. The state has risen to national prominence after over a century when it was perceived as a backwater.

Water Conservation Programs: One in Progress, Two to Go

I applaud the Washington County Water Conservancy District’s “Lazy Grass” turf replacement initiative, known officially as its Water Efficient Landscape Program. The district is rightfully proud of replacing about 1.6 million square feet of water-wasting grass with xeriscaping. The district points out that grass uses up to four times as much water as more appropriate desert landscaping whose plants are irrigated with dripper systems.

There are two more steps to go  that would allow Washington County and the state as a whole to put the state’s water to its most productive uses. The second step, use steeply increasing rates to motivate our heaviest urban water users to become more mindful of the amount of water they are using. The third and final step available to us was explained in my column surprisingly titled “Utah Will Never Run Out of Water.”

The 2030 Census: More Texas, Less California

For progressives who are looking for bright spots in last November’s disastrous losses to Donald Trump and to Republicans around the country, the 2030 census portends an even worse future. Blue states appear on track to lose as many as a dozen seats in the U.S. House − and with them their Electoral College votes − after reapportionment is completed based on the 2030 Census.

Will progressives recognize the need to modify their policies to better match voters’ aspirations? Or will they double down on today’s failing policies hoping that “better messaging” will convince the rest of us to see the progressive light? Beating the same, tired old drum will most likely leave them even farther from the majority they seek when 2030’s demographic reality results in an increasing conservative electorate.