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In the absence of national leadership on climate policy, municipalities are adopting resolutions to reduce their carbon footprint and transition to clean energy. However, what leads to successful adoption of these resolutions and how to effectively implement climate goals at the community level needs further exploration. To investigate these questions, this thesis examines the resolutions adopted in Salt Lake City, Park City, and Moab, Utah to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2032. Data was collected through documents, such as city reports and newspapers, and interviews with government officials, city staff, and community members involved with the resolution process. A time series analysis and thematic analysis were used to determine casual events and identify fundamental themes within the data. Each city’s plan for resolution execution was compared to the approaches and techniques outlined in the community-based social marketing framework and the theory of diffusion of innovations. These findings deliver a transferable five-step framework to assist other cities in adopting similar resolutions and strategies to engage community members with practices that will help cities achieve these ambitious resolutions.

This Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to document results of an analysis of proposed changes to current management of wildland fire and hazardous fuels for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Division of Fire Management. The Division of Fire Management oversees all fire-related activities for the Moab, Monticello, and Price Field Offices, referred to in this document as the Moab Fire District. Proposed revisions of the Moab Fire District Fire Management Plan (FMP) serve as the Proposed Action for this EA. The revised FMP incorporates current planning requirements associated with fire management on public lands, including wildland fire suppression and fuel treatments. The EA analysis is designed to ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It allows determinations to be made as to whether any “significant” impacts, as defined by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in regulation 40 CFR 1508.27, could result from the analyzed actions. An EA provides evidence for determining whether preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) statement is necessary. A Decision Record (DR) that includes a FONSI statement is a document that briefly presents reasons why implementation of the Proposed Action would not result in significant environmental impacts (effects) beyond those already addressed within other NEPA and BLM planning documents. If the decision-maker determines that this project would have significant impacts following the analysis in the EA, then an EIS would be prepared for the project. If not, a DR may be signed for the EA approving the alternative selected. The DR would identify fire management planning goals and objectives associated with the FMP and would provide language upon which future fire management planning and implementation actions could tier (as per 40 CFR 1502.20). Future site-specific projects would analyze issues in additional implementation-level NEPA documents.

This Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) has been prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, to address potential environmental impacts associated with a request by Atlas Corporation to amend its existing NRC License no. SUA-917 to reclaim in place an existing uranium mill tailings pile near Moab, Utah. The proposed reclamation would allow Atlas to (1) reclaim the tailings pile for permanent disposal and long-term custodial care by a government agency in its current location on the Moab site, and (2) prepare the 162-ha (400-acre) Moab site for closure. the FEIS describes and evaluates (1) the purpose of and need for the proposed action, (2) alternatives considered, (3) potentially affected environmental resources, (4) environmental consequences of the proposed action, and (5) costs and benefits associated with reclamation alternatives.

The Green River-Moab area encompasses about 7,800 square kilometers or about 25 percent of the Paradox basin. The entire Paradox basin is a part of the Colorado Plateaus that is underlain by a thick sequence of evaporite (salt) beds of Pennsylvanian age. The rock units that underlie the area have been grouped into hydrogeologic units based on their water-transmitting ability. Confining beds consist of evaporite beds of mostly salt, and overlying and underlying thick sequences of rocks with minimal permeability; above and below these confining beds are aquifers. The upper Mesozoic sandstone aquifer, probably is the most permeable hydrogeologic unit of the area and is the subject of this investigation. The principal component of groundwater outflow from this aquifer probably is subsurface flow to regional streams (the Green and Colorado Rivers) and is about 100 million cubic meters per year. All other components of outflow are relatively small. The average annual recharge to the aquifer is about 130 million cubic meters, of which about 20 million cubic meters is from local precipitation. For the lower aquifer, all recharge and discharge probably is by subsurface flow and was not estimated.