Air Quality
For Utahns, poor air quality is the greatest negative attribute of their quality of life and one of their strongest concerns. Utah’s air is clean much of the year, but in many parts of the state pollutants regularly exceed healthy air standards during winter months and also at times during the summer. Pollution-causing emissions come from four main sources: mobile sources, area sources, non-road mobile sources, and point sources. Utahns view this air pollution as a threat to their health and their family’s health. They also find that poor air quality constrains their freedom to enjoy Utah’s beautiful outdoors and affects the state economy by discouraging businesses and employees from locating in Utah.
Your Utah, Your Future
A resounding three out of four Utahns voted to reduce emissions by 40% from today, even as Utah’s population nearly doubles. In the scenario that Utahns chose for 2050, Utahns drive 25% less, one third of Utah’s cars have zero tailpipe emissions, existing buildings are retrofitted to be 30% more efficient, all new buildings are 50% more efficient, and all water heaters are ultra-low emission, among other strategies.
To achieve better air quality, Utahns are willing to buy and drive cleaner cars with cleaner fuels; build more low-emission, energy-efficient homes and businesses; and avoid wood burning during winter inversions. Though they are somewhat less willing to curb driving, they want to increase the convenience of getting around without a car by locating housing closer to destinations, expanding public transportation options, and making it easier to walk and bike in communities.
Learn more about the future of air quality →
Our Air Quality Projects
Bearing in mind the results of Your Utah, Your Future, Envision Utah brought together representatives from across the state in health care, business, nonprofit organization, government, academia, transportation, and more to form the Clean Air Action Team. This group of leaders worked together to provide a set of broadly supported recommendations to improve air quality.
The Clean Air Action Team has had several successes including leveraging support to convert many of Utah’s major petroleum refineries to the production of Tier 3 fuels, leading to the Provo Clean Air Toolkit, creating a pilot program to help Utah car dealers educate buyers on the air quality impacts of new vehicles, and more.
Envision Utah is currently facilitating the Clean Air Action Team to create a statewide Clean Air Toolkit and a building retrofit program for efficiency and air quality upgrades.
