We’re excited that Utah Governor John Huntsman along with Mayor Becker and Corroon have issued the Clear the Air Challenge to the state of Utah.
The 6 week Challenge begins June 1 and ends July 10. Governor Hunstman addressed the air quality problem we have in Utah and how it affects our health.
“We issued the Clear the Air Challenge because we have an air quality problem that needs to be addressed. Our unique geographical features trap harmful emissions in our valleys creating red alert days, which are especially hazardous to our health,” stated Governor Huntsman. “Vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of our poor air quality. Luckily we can do something about that. We are asking the public to think before they drive, there are small changes that we all can make that will have a great impact.”
We need to drive our cars less and that is what the Challenge is about. Our goal is to encourage 10,000 participants to help eliminate a total of 300,000 single occupant vehicle trips and avert 1,000,000 miles. If we did this it would result in a reduction of 1.8 million pounds of emissions in our air.
The Challenge goals are to help improve our air quality, lessen traffic congestion and conserve energy. Read the entire press release for the Clear the Air Challenge.
I was just now searching around about this when I found your blog post. I’m only stopping by to say that I definitely enjoyed seeing this post, it’s really clear and well written. Are you going to post more about this? It appears like there is more material here for future posts.
Thank you for your interest. We will be posting more about this throughout the Challenge, so stay tuned!
The challenge is about half way through and I had a couple of thoughts I wanted to share at this point.
1. Although it looks like some of the goals will not be met, I think the challenge will definitely be looked upon as a great success. My question is, are there any plans to continue the challenge beyond the July end date? I think you have a good thing going and it would be a shame to not put it to more good use somehow.
2. Membership is just under 3,400. Personally I think the real challenge is getting this number to go up dramatically. I believe that the vast majority of current members were already practicing energy conservation travel methods, which is why they joined up. Now there needs to be a strategy to expand membership into the NOT previously practicing population. Are there any plans for this? Maybe UTA could offer discounted rates for Clear the Air Challenge members or something like that? How about businesses giving away an alternative to parking validation for those patrons who traveled wise to their store? I think we just need something to draw them in. Once they are participating, logging your miles and seeing your positive contribution to the environment is great motivation to continue.