Candidates might have thought they could safely narrow their usual preparations for a public forum just from the name. There it was Tuesday evening on the big screen behind their long table in front of the stage at the Jim Santy Auditorium: “Tackling Local Climate Issues Forum.”If that weren’t enough of a clue, there was the fact of the host, the Citizens Climate Lobby. If that somehow escaped, then maybe the moderators, Chris Cherniak, of KPCW’s “This Green Earth,” and Sonja Preston, of Park City High School’s Green Team, would make the theme clear.So you know at least the gist of the questions, the vibe, your Park City audience, right?The candidates could be excused for thinking so. You could be excused for thinking so. But climate change has so permeated modern life that every big political issue along the Wasatch Back ties directly to it — affordable housing, traffic congestion, population growth, quality of life, cost of living, along with the more obvious open space, environment, recycling food waste and our part in helping save the Great Salt Lake. This cornerstone issue literally is hanging in the unseasonably warm, dry — and very smoky — air as Utah’s largest wildfire of the year has been busy cleaning out the beetle-killed high forest not far from Woodland to not far from Hanna in Duchesne County. The Yellow Lake Fire had grown to just shy of 20,000 acres as the candidates offered their insights.Unsurprisingly, more questions than usual for the four Summit County Council candidates and three of four candidates for the state House seats with the most territory in the Wasatch Back had to do with wildfire, fire insurance and mitigating the effects of drought and ever-ripening conditions for fire.Most of the candidates’ work was educational, to fit questions aimed more at what could be done vs. what exactly would they do in office?The audience of three dozen or so learned about the value of ISO ratings for insurance, most important for the proximity of well-equipped fire stations to your home. They heard about programs in place, the promise of innovations to come, the dangers of allowing development in areas prone to wildfire.They learned that every candidate for County Council and the state Legislature present is serious about wildfire and, beyond that, recognizes climate change as real. State Rep. Kera Birkeland was absent, though she has said elsewhere she’s concerned about that, too.The candidates showed they all were well versed with local challenges, programs and ideas in 30-second to one-minute answers. Republicans tended to bring up cost and the need for innovation. Democrats tended to lean more into participation in programs away from what might tap fossil fuels or lead to more emissions.Ari Ioannides, the Republican challenger for the Summit County Council’s Seat C, who expressed pure excitement at the technological innovations right around the corner, touted retrofitting coal plants with small-scale nuclear plants under testing in North Carolina, and getting smaller fire pumpers into tighter roads in forested areas to protect more homes and lower insurance costs. He also advocated for finding Recycle Utah a larger space to provide more service.“This is one of those problems that there’s not going to be one big solution for. It’s going to be a hundred little things,” Ioannides said to a question about the climate impacts of housing and transportation, and reducing traffic and emissions. “What’s not the answer is building a big subdivision with 3,000 homes in the town of Hoytsville and having people commute.”The Democrat, Megan McKenna, said affordable housing lies at the heart of her approach to climate change. That is, communities where workers can afford to live close to their jobs in Summit County, which largely means Park City, and public transit that’s reliable, fast and easy to use. She said this is important to her as an avid user of public transportation and resident in affordable housing.“It was when I got into affordable housing that I really saw the intersection of climate, of traffic, of workforce, of safety, and housing,” McKenna said. “It all comes down to housing, and so I hope to bring that together with my voice with an equity and environmental lens.”  The other Democrat, 12-year veteran Councilor Roger Armstrong, poured some cold water on housing, affordable and otherwise, talking about 30,000 more residents as a result of such developments in coming years. It’s hard to make progress against climate change with the inescapable traffic, emissions, needs and waste products of that many more people, he pointed out.“We’ve set very ambitious gas emissions goals, lowering our greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2016 baseline by 2040, and below the 2014 baseline, also 80% by 2050,” he said, going through county programs in his tenure. “You probably read recently about the opening of the Elektron Project. That is a project that will allow Summit County, Park City, Park City Mountain, … and Deer Valley to all be 100% of their operations from renewable energy.”Tory Welch, Armstrong’s Republican challenger, expressed by far the most cost consciousness among the county candidates. Cut regulations, trim fees, keep taxes down. Climate initiatives that show cost savings will have the most effect with remaining skeptics who may not be moved by emission evangelism, he suggested. He added that renewables are not currently reliable or cost-effective enough yet to take over energy production.“The best thing we can possibly do, and you’ll probably hear me say this many, many times, is innovate,” Welch said. “To produce an economic environment that enables small business and nonprofits and really smart people that care and have good ideas, and to pursue them.”For the state legislative candidates, the most telling discussion turned on the Great Salt Lake.“The Great Salt Lake is very precious,” said state Rep. Mike Kohler. “I get that. But as it’s been mentioned by my opponent, there are discussions in the Capitol to actually destroy agriculture in the rest of the state to save (the lake). It makes no sense to me.”His Democratic challenger, Julie Monahan, had called the Great Salt Lake’s health the state’s most pressing issue. She said an elevation of 4,200 feet was what “the experts are saying” should be the minimum water level for a healthy lake. Then, like a household budget, the state can calculate needs from there.“We can figure out how much water needs to get to the lake because that has to be the top priority,” she said. “Two-thirds of natural flows into that lake are diverted, and 80% of that is for agriculture. So, you know, we have to have a serious conversation about what can be done to support agriculture.”Berkland’s Democratic challenger, Kris Campbell, told a one-minute story about the coalition of citizens, farmers and governments that came to together to save Bear Lake along the Idaho border.“They brought everyone together to agree to a level,” he said. “We need to do that same process for how we figure out what’s best for the Great Salt Lake.” The post Climate-focused candidate forum spans other large issues appeared first on Park Record.