Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah)

History

The Healthy Environmental Alliance of Utah received its charitable tax status in 1999. The group originally worked to oppose nuclear power and the siting of nuclear waste in Utah. In 2005, it helped pass Utah Senate Bill 24, which declared that only nuclear waste that loses its hazardous properties in one hundred years could be disposed in Utah. In 2007, it opposed the building of Utah’s first commercial nuclear reactor which would have brought a zero-carbon emissions source of power to the state. The group was successful in their campaign and the reactor was never built. In 2010, it published the eUtah report, which laid out a path to run Utah entirely on weather-dependent energy by 2050. ⁴

Advocacy

Energy Sources

HEAL Utah wants to get rid of coal power entirely to adopt a completely weather-dependent power grid made up of wind farms and solar panels; the group has speculated this could be done by 2050. The group wants people to act individually by setting up solar and wind energy for personal use and advocates that the Utah government implement these forms of energy state-wide. ¹

Air Quality

HEAL Utah, although opposed to zero-carbon nuclear energy, is concerned with carbon emissions. The group argues that the majority of emissions are from vehicles, area sources, and industry. The group wants to force stronger emissions standards on cars and trucks on the road; ² create legislation to restrict the size, location, and energy requirements of new buildings; ⁵ and order large industrial developments to manage themselves in more “environmentally and socially responsible ways.” ⁶

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In its 2021 IRS filing, HEAL Utah reported that its mission was to “protect public health and the environment from dirty, toxic and nuclear energy threats.” A recap of the group’s accomplishments for 2022 boasted of leading “an advocacy campaign to convince eight Utah cities to withdraw from participating in a risky proposed nuclear power project” known as the Carbon Free Power Project. ^{7 8}

Leadership

Board Chair

Evangeline Burbidge is the chair of the board for HEAL Utah, as of August 2023.  Since 2014, she has also been listed as a partner with boutique law firm Lewis & Llewellyn LLP. From 2009 through 2014, she worked as an associate for law firm Latham & Watkins. Prior to this, she worked as a law clerk for the United States Attorney’s Office in 2008 and then as special assistant district attorney for the District Attorney’s Office of San Francisco in 2009. ^{9 10}

Executive Director

Lexi Tuddenham is the executive director of HEAL Utah, as of August 2023. Prior to this, from 2016 to 2021, she was the executive director of Sheep Mountain Alliance, a conservation organization based in Telluride, Colorado. ⁹ She worked for several conservation organizations abroad including the Center for Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge in China and the dZi Foundation in Nepal; she also worked on environmental anthropological research related to the Pebble Mine project in Alaska. ⁹