RICHFIELD REAPER: The world finished watching the Winter Olympics last week.
For many people it brought to mind memories of when the 2002 Winter Olympics were hosted in Utah. Those games started with controversy, but turned out to be one of the most financially successful Olympic events of all time.
“You really got a sense of the spirit of the people in Utah during those Olympics,” said Mitt Romney, the man credited with saving Utah’s Olympic games.
When he was tapped to be the CEO of the 2002 games, he said he worried that the scandal around the games would prevent people from volunteering. However, more than 47,000 volunteers took part in those games, helping them succeed.
A businessman, former governor of Massachusetts and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Romney is now pursuing a new position — United States senator.
“I’m not in this for a career,” Romney said during a campaign stop in Richfield. “I’m looking at it as a chance to make a difference for the people of Utah.”
Romney’s intention is to fill the senate seat occupied by Orrin Hatch since 1977. Hatch has announced he will not seek re-election.
“Utah is going to lose a lot of clout,” Romney said during a visit to Richfield Friday afternoon. He said that he and his wife, Ann, decided that they could help the people of Utah.
“I haven’t lived here my whole life,” Romney said. However, Romney has lived in the state for the past decade, and has close ties to Utah.
He said while Utah’s economy has been growing at a brisk pace, there are still 11 counties in the state that are going through recession-like conditions.
While he may not be able to match Hatch’s 40 years worth of influence in the senate right out of the gate, Romney said his 2012 bid for president put him in a good position to be a positive force on the senate floor for Utah.
Among the top issues facing Utah is how public lands are managed. With some 66.5 percent of the state owned by the federal government, Utah has a mixed blessing. On one hand, it has five national parks and several national monuments, Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands to drive tourism in the state. It also means less revenue from county property taxes, and lot of land decisions being made by people outside of the state.
“There has to be a more thoughtful and locally developed land management policy,” Romney said. He said he favors local voices having the weight in how the land around them is managed, rather than allowing bureaucrats in Washington to make all of the decisions.
Romney said the modest amounts of money paid to the state in payment in lieu of taxes and secure rural school’s funding by the federal government should continue. He said it’s appropriate for the federal government to compensate county governments due to the services provided locally to federal lands.
Economic development is also a key issue, especially in rural Utah where growth is often anemic.
One of the key advantages Romney said Sevier County has is the Snow College campus in Richfield. He said not only can campuses like Snow help supply the demand for trained workers in the state, they can also help create new businesses.
“Small business is typically the source of growth for our country,” Romney said. “We can grow our own.”
He said a program implemented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was governor of that state encouraged people with an idea for a business to pursue it, and actually helps generate viable new businesses each year.
Romney said one of the good things the Trump administration has done is to reorient how the federal government runs regulatory agencies.
Rather than being punitive against some industries like coal, Romney said Trump’s administration is taking the correct approach in allowing market forces to decide the future of industries.
“I think the future of coal is driven by the market,” Romney said. “I think it has a future, and I think we should be able to export it.”
He said as sources for natural gas allow it to become more economically competitive, and as solar technology becomes more efficient, the nation’s energy portfolio will naturally change. However, those things can’t be exported the way coal can.
Romney said the way energy is used in the United States is very likely to change in big ways as an increasing number of cars become electric. He said one report he read theorized that every new car sold in 15 years will be electric, and that it will take a lot of electricity to power those cars.
Romney said he would like to be able to help the state of political discourse in the United States if he’s elected to the senate.
“I think it comes from the guy at the top,” Romney said. He said great leaders, like Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill were able to inspire people and find common ground.
Finding the way to common ground is often a challenge, but it can be done, Romney said.
“I was a conservative governor of a state that’s legislature was 89 percent Democrats,” Romney said. He said Massachusetts was able to still find ways where both sides of the aisle could agree on issues, even things as contentious as gun control. Romney said he’d like to see politics become less divisive in Washington D.C., where trust is often in short supply.
“I would be only one of 100 elected,” Romney said. “But I’m going to fight for the things that make a difference in people’s lives.”
Original article: http://www.richfieldreaper.com/news/local/article_d02a8dfc-1cce-11e8-9369-8b16be16a84b.html