Utah’s nuclear ambitions continued forward with some bills and resolutions expressing support for the idea of nuclear power across the state. Rep. Carl Albrecht passed a bill to create a special nuclear permitting office within the Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality.
Sen. Derrin Owens passed a bill to allow for nuclear fuel recycling in the state. He also pushed a resolution to work with the feds to speed up permitting.
Sen. Kathleen Riebe introduced a resolution for “downwinders,” those impacted by nuclear testing in the past, urging the Trump administration to not resume nuclear testing. It failed in the Senate.
A resolution to speed up oil, gas and mining permits on BLM land in Utah passed.
A bill pushed by agriculture interests to cut off incentives to solar plants if they set up on land covering up crop and grazing land passed the legislature.
A bill that requires new studies on the impacts of regional transmission grids on ratepayers (particularly when it comes to clean energy grids) passed the legislature.
Large-scale solar and wind projects have to consult with Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources on impacts to wildlife under a bill that passed.
A bill to evaluate the energy rebates offered by large utilities passed.
Sen. Ann Millner’s bill to speed up permitting for critical mineral extraction passed.
TECHNOLOGY —
Sen. Lincoln Fillmore’s bill expanding Utah’s restrictions on cell phones, smartwatches and other electronic devices in classrooms passed. The bill expands it “bell-to-bell,” where kids used to be able to check their phones at breaks.
Rep. Colin Jack passed a bill that would demand local water districts come up with cyber-security plans to prevent water infrastructure from being hacked. The legislature passed Rep. Walt Brooks’ bill that requires more planning for foreign hacking attempts and bans the use of certain technologies already prohibited by the federal government in critical infrastructure.
Sen. Lincoln Fillmore passed a bill to ensure school internet systems had proper filtering software installed.
Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore’s bill allowing for defamation lawsuits over AI “deepfakes” got a lot of support from a powerful institution in Utah — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The bill passed throughout the legislature.
Rep. Ariel Defay passed a big bill that set more guardrails around the use of technology in classrooms, particularly the use of AI.
A bill to ban nonconsensual AI-generated “deepfake porn” images in Utah passed the legislature. Rep. Ariel Defay’s bill cracks down on the platforms making them and demands more disclosures that the images are AI-generated. Her bill cracking down on AI-generated child pornography also passed the legislature.
The White House put pressure on Rep. Doug Fiefia’s bill imposing safety and child protection plans, saying it did not align with their AI policies. The bill didn’t go anywhere after that. His bill demanding disclosures that you’re talking to an AI chatbot passed the House, failed in the Senate.
Gov. Cox signed a bill that terminates contracts from third-party education vendors that can’t comply with data privacy requirements the state has.
A bill to offer the SafeUT app in multiple languages passed.
Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore introduced a bill almost as a joke to designate Android as the official state mobile operating system. He got a lot of “green bubble” “blue bubble” jokes but the bill never went anywhere.
A bill that would give police more training on cryptocurrency scams and give Utah’s Department of Commerce more power to regulate cryptocurrency kiosks passed.
Rep. Jordan Teuscher passed a bill pushing more government forms to be electronic.
Rep. Doug Owens’ bill to crack down on illegal use of tracking devices passed the legislature.
Sen. Stephanie Pitcher proposed a bill demanding disclosure for consumers when “algorithmic pricing” is used. The bill failed in a Senate committee.
A bill that demands more be done to secure databases and programs that rely on genetic information passed.
A bill that could clear the way for Utah driver licenses and state IDs on Apple or Google wallet programs passed. But digital privacy safeguards need to be worked out first.
Students will take a course on digital skills including harms of social media on mental health, AI and cybersecurity under a bill that passed.
Rep. Jason Kyle passed a bill that demands law enforcement continue to get a warrant for your digital data, expanding some of the technologies that Utah’s existing digital privacy laws cover.
School buses in rural Utah could soon get WiFi under a bill that allowed for grants to help make it happen for kids who have long rides to and from school.
Tucked into a bill on economic development? Rep. Cal Roberts prohibited cities from offering incentives to lure “large load data centers.”
