DEAR EDITOR
I am noticing “bait and switches” and “red herring” processes in all the dealings between the extraction industries, the County Council and its constituents. Bait-and-switch is offering one thing as bait, but switching it out for something else. A “red herring” is a diversionary tactic. The proposed Seven County Infrastructure Coalition seems like a front for one of these “bait and switch” tactics with “red herrings” flopping all over the place to sell it to you and me.
Per my interpretation of the GRAMA documents recently released (to those who requested to know more about the Coalition than was spoon fed to the public during County Council meetings) the coalition is a political vehicle to ensure transportation corridors are built for the oil and gas industries to move their goods. In the “Memorandum of Understanding Eastern Utah Infrastructure Authority” that six of the seven counties have signed, it states:
“Whereas, many private sector industries, both on the record and off have stated that they would invest much more in the region if there were sufficient take-out capacity for the commodities and transportation in general.”
This is corporate welfare using the red herring approach.
As for the Sego Canyon transportation corridor that several County Council members are pushing so hard to sell us, the following is an excerpt from the recently released Department of Transportation Final Feasibility Study for the Uinta Basin Transportation Plan:
“The East Canyon Alternative presents the least challenges in terms of constructability and permitting, while the Sego Canyon Alternative is the most impactful and expensive.”
My opinion – this is the bait and (possible) switch … Bait us with controversial Sego, all the time knowing, per the Feasibility Study, that it was never a viable transportation corridor choice primarily due to the study’s findings. There are no Wilderness Study Areas or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern impacting the East Canyon alternative. This tactic might play out as the County Council graciously saving Sego by switching the proposed transportation corridor to East Canyon. We’ll think they are doing the “right thing.”
The intention is for us to pay for a transportation corridor so corporations can increase profit. Stop believing those “leaders” who use red herrings and bait-and-switch. Do the research yourself or listen to those in the community seeking facts.
Carol Mayer
Moab
