SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (News4Utah) About 500 students gathered at the Utah State Capitol asking lawmakers to make clean air a bigger priority.
“I cough. I gag. I can’t breathe. I can’t go outside,” Matthew Hoff, 5th Grader at The Madeleine Choir School.
Eleven-year-old Hoff is frustrated that Utah hasn’t cleaned up it’s act.
“It kills people. It will hospitalize them, it will kill them. We have the chance to stop that, but we don’t take it,” said Hoff.
On Monday, he was joined by hundreds of students from The Madeleine Choir School and Rowland Hall rallying for their future air quality.
“I really want to breathe clean air. I love being outside and I love the environment and it is awful when you can’t enjoy it,” Rowland Hall 8th Grader Isabel Hill said.
At least six bills specifically address Utah’s air quality are still being discussed on Capitol Hill.
Several will set up programs to monitor air quality initiatives. Others aim to decrease diesel emissions and provide clean air education to the state’s newest drivers. During the rally, students reached out to encourage lawmakers to pass the bills during the final week of the session.
“We are going to breathe this air longer than they are. We are not going to give up trying to clean our air,” Corrine Higgins said, The Madeline Choir School 5th Grader.
This is the fourth consecutive year students have rallied for cleaner air during the legislative session.
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