SALT LAKE CITY — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg talked with Fox 13 about what might come to Utah from President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan.
On why Utah, with near full employment, needs a jobs plan:
"Utah alone has more than 2,000 miles of roads that are in poor condition. We've got to improve our roads and bridges. We've got to invest in our ports and airports. We have to invest in Broadband. There's a lot of people in Utah without good access to reliable affordable broadband."
On short term particulate pollution:
"A lot of particulate pollution comes out of the tailpipes of internal combustion engines. While we have great performing electric vehicles increasingly made in the U.S., we've got to do more to make them affordable...to make it not a luxury item but something more and more people can quickly adopt. And get the fuel savings that come with it. When we do, that zero emissions is not just good for climate. That's good for public health. That's good for exposure ot particulates that can lead to things like asthma. We've got to do something about that. And having charging stations so that in big spread out places and Utah comes to mind, there's just as much confidence in getting where you need to go as people who live in a dense coastal city."
On Utah's housing crunch:
"In a lot of families, you don't get to worry about paying your transportation costs one month and your housing costs the next month. They hit you all at once and for too many families you add those together, transportation and housing and it's 40 percent or more of people's family budget and income which is not affordable, so that's why we've got to look at things like transit-oriented development planning housing and transit at the same time to make it easier for people to affordable get to where they need to go."
On visiting Utah as a presidential candidate:
"When I came to Utah I was made to feel so welcome and I really enjoyed seeing how much people cared about their community and how much people cared about each other. I just encountered such compassion and concern, even from across different ideological lines and it's a political style and a community style that I think we could use a lot more of."
