Return to Website

The Magic of Yellowstone

A discussion forum on anything Yellowstone.

The Magic of Yellowstone
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Coalition created for clean air

Coalition created for clean air




DRIGGS, Idaho (AP) - Mayor Louis Christensen lived in southern California, so he's seen what air pollution can do.


He did not want the same thing to happen in the Upper Snake River Valley so he joined leaders from through the three-state Greater Yellowstone Region to make The Greater Yellowstone/Teton Clean Cities Coalition part of the national Clean Cities Coalition. It is the first member to include two national parks.




"I watched as the San Bernardino Mountains became covered in smog," Christensen said. "I don't want to see that happen in Teton Valley."




Their attack on air pollution includes finding new ways to power cars and trucks.




Alternative fuel vehicles are already being used by the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory for commuters to the site from Idaho Falls and other locations. Yellowstone National Park also has a prototype 27-seat bus that was developed by engineers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. It can run on biodiesel or natural gas.




In addition to relieving congestion on the park's 350 miles of roads, the new vehicle could also lessen pollution caused by almost three million visitors annually.




Idaho Falls Mayor Linda Milam laid the groundwork for the regional membership in the national coalition back in 1997 when she first heard about the national group, that is made up primarily of urban areas already fighting air pollution.




City leaders went to their counterparts throughout the region in communities like Driggs, Jackson and Cody, Wyo. and Bozeman, Mont. to create a three-state group the size of Connecticut with 260,000 residents and 80 percent of the land in federal hands.




"You seldom get a coalition that is exclusively in a rural area because there is a lot of funding attached to the clean cities program," said Jon Lear, deputy coordinator of the regional effort to join the Clean Cities Coalition.




"Rather than taking an urban area where there is already an air quality problem, the effort here is to try to preserve something significant to the Greater Yellowstone area," he said.